Liberation that wasn’t from liberators who aren’t

Of the many lies told by the Bush Administration about the invasion of Iraq, and there are now too many to catalog, few stand out as prominently as Vice President Dick Cheney’s continued claim that the Iraqi people see Americans as "liberators."

"My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators," Cheney said on Meet the Press on March 16, 2003.

"I really do believe we will be greeted as liberators," he said on Meet the Press on September 14, 2003.

"I said we’ll be greeted as liberators. And we were," he said, again on Meet the Press on September 24, 2006.

Say what?

As Cheney repeated his lie for yet another time this month, a poll by the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes found that 60 percent of Iraqis approve of attacks by insurgents against American soldiers in their country and 75 percent feel our military "provokes more violence than it prevents."

A separate State Department poll found two-thirds of Iraqis living in Baghdad want U.S. forces out of their country now.

So much for being liberators.

Iraqis see America’s presence for what it is – and occupying force from a country that invaded their country without provocation in clear violation of international law: an invasion based on lies, perpetuated by lies and driven by an out-of-control President with an agenda that has nothing to do with truth, justice or the American way.

Correct that. The criminal actions of George W. Bush define the new American way, an America that has become an international bully, an America driven by greed and a lust for power, an America that ignores the Geneva Convention and unleashes goon squads to arrest suspected enemies without cause, detain them without consideration for their rights and torture them without regard to law or basic human decency.

The old American way would never have allowed such obvious dismantling of the Constitution and the rights it once guaranteed. The old American way would never have allowed a madman like Bush or the criminal cabal that he runs from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to remain in office.

The old American way crumbled into dust and ashes along with the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. It died at the hands of a craven political opportunist who saw the events of that tragic day as a way to seize absolute power and destroy a great nation that once stood above the brutality of other parts of the world and refused to be sucked into the morass of barbarism.

The old American way died at the hands of an assassin named Bush and his gang of accomplices called The Republican Party, aided by politically-castrated Democrats and a mesmerized electorate that should have known better.

Liberators? Not likely Mr. Cheney. To use one of your favorite insults to chose who dare disagree with you and your co-conspirators: Fuck off!

Bush and the thugs who control Congress have turned America into pillagers who destroyed not only Iraq but also the Constitution of this nation. They have robbed America of its soul, purged it of its decency and stripped it bare of any pretense of standing for freedom, law or morality.

Iraqis understand all too well that they were not liberated by the soldiers who invaded thier country and now oversee an occupation where scores of civilians die daily from the anarchy created by the American presence.

Today, Iraqi citizens pray to be liberated from the Americans who destroyed their nation and poisoned their culture.

They aren’t the only ones. Here in America, we pray to be liberated from the traitors who occupy our government, destroyed our nation and poisoned our culture.

If our prayers are answered, maybe theirs can be too.

Then both our nations can be liberated.