Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of "Shock and Awe"...The beginning of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. Outside of Chimpy McPresident's delusional speech and Darth Cheney's contemptuous dismissal of the 2/3 of Americans who now understand the war was a mistake, not much was heard about it in the media.

One would think the administration lap dogs...you know, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage-Weiner, Glen Beck, and the rest of the right wing media whores would have been sharing in the President's pronouncements of progress and imminent victory in Iraq. Instead, there was silence. Even the Administration's propaganda arm, FOX Noise, did little more than cover Bush's speech.

Perhaps they remained silent so as not to remind America of just what the invasion and occupation of Iraq has bought "We, the People...". Let's look at it, shall we?

-Nearly 4000 US service men and women dead

-Some 23,000 (low estimate) US service men and women wounded and maimed for life

-Nearly $5 trillion spent, with more to come

-Oil at $110bbl

-Massive profits for war profiteers

-Levels of foreign debt which undermine US security

And this is but a very truncated list. Sure Saddam was toppled...Sure the Iraqi people were liberated...But those were not the reasons we were given for the invasion. We were told, by President Bush, Vice-President Cheney and the rest of the administration, that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the US and its allies in the form of a fully reconstituted and operational WMD program. To date, no significant stockpiles or evidence of a reconstituted WMD program have been found.

Happy anniversary.