I’m being somewhat unfair by referring to Digby that way, but I don’t care. I’m really tired of seeing this kind of tripe.

That is not to say we didn’t invade other countries on trumped up rationales or thin evidence. We certainly did. But it was a given among western democracies after the two horrifying wars of the 20th century that wars of aggression were a no-no. But just as Bush and Cheney decided that 9/11 changed everything such that even the civilized taboos against torture were out of fashion, they openly flouted and then discarded the world’s consensus on this issues after WWII. We became what we had once abhorred.

Wait, what? Western democracies didn’t “wage wars of aggression” after World War Two, we merely “invade(d) other countries on trumped up rationales or thin evidence”? You say “to-MAY-to”, I say “Ohai! Weer in yur kuntree, killin all yur d00dz!” Is this what the kids today mean by “American Exceptionalism”? All that other bad stuff didn’t count, because we really meant well, gosh darn it, and besides, the USSR was worse?

See, here’s the thing: if you think the CIA hasn’t been happily torturing people since its founding, you’re a gullible naïf. I mean, what leftist, even of the milquetoast variety, hasn’t heard of this little point of national pride? Did we just accidentally stumble into that? Did some other country set that up on our soil as a prank while we were sleeping? How do you square that sort of thing with this historical memory loss that pretends that all this started in January, 2001? I mean – um…wait…hold on a sec…I’m sorry, what?

Oh, hey, it’s Salvador Allende! What’s up, Sal? Did you have something you wanted to add?

Yeah, I’m still fucking dead, here. And I see that fat frog-faced fuck Kissinger is still hale and healthy, not swinging in the breeze!

I know, Sal, I’m sorry. Anyone to the left of Mussolini was potentially a Communist, you know. It was practically inevitable we’d come barging on in.

Fucking tell me about it. Hey, how ya like that Ahmadinejad? Better than Khomeini, at least, huh? Good thing you overthrew my secular, soft-on-Communism ass, wouldn’t you say?

Mohammed Mossadegh! Why, it’s like a Ghosts of American Boogeymen Past parade in here all of a sudden! Hey guys, glad you stopped by, sorry for the bloodthirsty imperialism and all, but I gotta finish this post, a’ight? Later.

Anyway, here’s some ugly truth: the only thing Bush really did differently than recent presidents was to go about running the empire like the lazy, ne’er-do-well fratboy fuckup he’s always been. He just simply didn’t bother to put any gloss on it. He couldn’t care less about putting any effort into telling you that a shit sandwich was really something from a five-star restaurant. He just let it all hang out, and smirked at you for gaping in shock. That’s right, America – you walked in on your beloved Uncle Sam, unshaven, unwashed, drunk in a wifebeater t-shirt and stained boxer shorts, and halfheartedly yanking himself to a bukkake video starring Iraqi victims of our “liberation” – and you didn’t do anything about it. He put it right in your face and smirked about it, and you consoled yourself by pretending that it was all his fault, that if we could just get rid of him, it would all go back to the way it was, when we were the indispensable nation, the city on a hill, and everyone loved us, and mistakes were made, and we might have broken several tiny countries when all we wanted to do was stroke their soft fur, but it was only because we cared too much, and we always apologized a few decades later anyway, and…

Sigh. Really, Chomsky and Zinn should be required reading for high-schoolers here. It’s going to be a fun four-to-eight years.