from Eric Alterman:

September 11, 2007: "How I Spent the Last Six Years," A brief list that might easily have been written by George W. Bush.
Regarding the attacks:
\ufffd\tIgnored persistent warnings of an imminent terrorist attack.
\ufffd\tContinued reading The Pet Goat ...
\ufffd\tWent up in Air Force One after having been informed it was a likely target.
\ufffd\tSpent the day in a panicky runaround, leaving it to others to reassure and inform a shocked nation.
\ufffd\tLater sold photographs of self on same day for purposes of Republican fundraising.
\ufffd\tPurposely misled rescue workers and volunteers about the safety of the air quality around Ground Zero.
\ufffd\tDeclared, like Wyatt Earp, to capture Bin Laden "dead or alive."
\ufffd\tTold the rest of the world either they were "with us or against us," like Superman or something ...
\ufffd\tIgnored the fact that most of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia; pretended they were from Iraq.
Regarding Afghanistan:
\ufffd\tRefused the help of NATO.
\ufffd\tSquandered numerous opportunities to capture bin Laden, allowing him to escape at Tora Bora and elsewhere.
\ufffd\tRejected a more effective strategy of police work and targeting killings for mass bombings that helped alienate the population.
\ufffd\tAllowed the Taliban to regroup and rebuild.
\ufffd\tAllowed Al Qaeda to regroup and rebuild.
\ufffd\tAllowed heroin production and exports to increase.
\ufffd\tAllowed country to lapse back into chaos and threaten nuclear-armed Pakistan.
Regarding America:
\ufffd\tInsisted on the right to arrest American citizens and hold them indefinitely without right to habeas corpus, thereby invalidating virtually the entire Constitution.
\ufffd\tKidnapped individuals for the purpose of "rendition" and certain torture, violating national laws at will.
\ufffd\tOpened secret torture prisons in former police states and lied about it.
\ufffd\tWiretapped American citizens without warrant or lawful authority.
\ufffd\tMonitored the actions of loyal patriotic organizations without warrant or lawful authority.
\ufffd\tAttacked patriotism of everyone who questioned mindless path to self-destruction and attacked media sources who informed Americans of the actions of their government as having "blood on their hands."
\ufffd\tSet up ineffective, scandal-plagued Department of Homeland Security.
\ufffd\tFailed to protect obvious targets like nuclear and chemical power plants, ports, and the like.
\ufffd\tHyped phony arrests of unserious nutcases as victories in war on terrorism.
\ufffd\tRefused New York City sufficient funds to protect itself from future attack.
Regarding Iraq:
\ufffd\tLied about evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
\ufffd\tLied about ties to Al Qaeda.
\ufffd\tLied about Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
\ufffd\tLied about infamous "Prague meeting."
\ufffd\tLied about lying about all of it.
\ufffd\tAttempted to destroy reputation of loyal government servant, Joe Wilson.
\ufffd\tLied about willingness to fire anyone involved with doing so.
\ufffd\tFailed to provide troops with sufficient body armor, vehicular protection.
\ufffd\tInsisted on repeated stop-loss orders.
\ufffd\tCut medical spending for wounded veterans, resulting in substandard care for the wounded.
\ufffd\tRefused to allow photographs of honored war dead.
\ufffd\tRefused to attend funerals of killed soldiers.
\ufffd\tRefused to give a military recruitment speech.
\ufffd\tTold Americans to go shopping; offered further tax breaks to the wealthy, asking sacrifices of no one but soldiers and their families.
\ufffd\tOpened and maintained a prison at Guant\ufffdnamo that violated U.S. and international law, branding the United States as a rogue nation.
\ufffd\tMisled Congress for purposes of securing war authority.
\ufffd\tFailed to send sufficient troops for post-invasion occupation.
\ufffd\tFailed to heed any postwar planning recommendations.
\ufffd\tFailed to ensure restoration of order, post-invasion.
\ufffd\tFailed to secure weapons sites, post invasion.
\ufffd\tFailed to reach out to population.
\ufffd\tRefused to count numbers of civilian dead and wounded.
\ufffd\tFailed to set up functional government, police force, etc.
\ufffd\tArrested innocent individuals for the purpose of torture.
\ufffd\tLied, once again, about ties to Al Qaeda.
\ufffd\tFailed to re-assess failed strategy, refused to replace incompetent subordinates.
\ufffd\tFailed to heed message of 2006 congressional elections to draw down war, escalated it instead.
\ufffd\tFailed to heed both Iraqi and U.S. population's repeatedly polled preference for withdrawal.
\ufffd\tSquandered sympathy of entire world, drastically sinking global opinion of the United States.
\ufffd\tSquandered hundreds of billions -- and, ultimately, trillions -- of dollars, destroying a functioning nation.
\ufffd\tStrengthened Iran.
\ufffd\tStrengthened Syria.
\ufffd\tStrengthened Libya.
\ufffd\tWeakened Israel.
\ufffd\tWeakened Jordan.
\ufffd\tWeakened Egypt.
\ufffd\tKilled more than 3,000 Americans.
\ufffd\tWounded nearly 30,000 Americans.
\ufffd\tKilled and wounded untold hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
\ufffd\tProvided recruitment material for terrorists the world over.
\ufffd\tContinually attacked the patriotism of those who suggested alternatives that might have avoided much of the above.
\ufffd\tRedoubled "determination," "strength," "grit," etc., every time any of the previous disasters was discovered.

And perhaps most amazingly of all: Got most of the mainstream media to go along with almost all of it


A