TV abused us.  The right-wing attack machine derided us.  The newspapers assaulted us.  Now, the polls are in.  ABC/Washington Post, CBS.  And guess what.  The majority of Americans now agree with us. 

We, you, and the rest of the non-Bush/Limbaughian world said the President was full of it, that Iraq was not an imminent threat.

58 percent disagreed.  Now, only 43 percent think Iraq posed a threat that required immediate action.

We said the President was lying, coming up with excuses to go to war so he can run a vendetta for his father, get oil contracts for his buddies.

Now, 56% say they agree, that the President exaggerated to sell the war, according to the polls.    And the administration admits there was flat out bullshit in their "scare them all" State of the Union Address.

We said he should get UN support before going to war - it would help with, among other things, ensuring it doesn't seem like a US occupation, anger the rest of the world, and not serve as well as a UN peacekeeping force in rebuilding the country and securing the peace after the initial battle.

Now, 1 soldier is dying a day, many more wounded.  International peacekeepers would be nice right about now.

We said give the weapons inspectors more time.  The Bushies attacked them, labeling them incompetent idiots who were letting Saddam mock them.  They should have found the weapons in no time, said the Bushies.

Now, the Bushies can't even find a bottle of Clorox to save their lives.

We said there wasn't a chance in hell the Iraqi people would greet us as liberators.  Vice President Cheney assured us again and again they would be waiting there with flowers and cheers.

Now, more people realize the Iraqi people are resentful of us rather than grateful, according to the CBS poll.

We said Bush was a flat out liar when he asserted, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction," attempting to portray two found trailers as proof of all he had claimed in leading us to war.

Guess what - not only was there never a chance they proved all he had said, but the trailers now have been determined to be likely exactly what the Iraqis had said, mobile hot air refilling trailers.

We said Bush's arrogant attitude would damage us worldwide.

Now, see him attempt to find goodwill in Africa.

We said it was a war for oil.

The oil fields were secured during the first week of the war.  That plan had been in place and was enacted.  Cheney's old company Halliburton got $600 million in contracts in a closed, non-bidding process before even the first week of the war was over.

We said the President needed to come up with a plan for after the fight, for how the peace would be won and the victory secured - simply, how the war would make things better rather than worse.

Now, we sit stretched thin and war weary, afraid to even send a couple thousand peacekeeping troops to Liberia.  What if we had to fight another war now?

We said focusing on Iraq was not the priority, and would shift attention from the important fights in the war on terror and in the world.

Osama is still out there, and it was just reported today by AP that North Korea has begun to reprocess fuel rods to make more nuclear weapons.  The top counterterrorism expert in the Bush administration, Rand Beers, quit, having deemed Bush a disaster in protecting the homeland and fighting the war on terror.

It's funny.  Not so long ago a lot of people were mocking us.  Calling us all sorts of horrible things.  Suggesting we were idiots, liars, cowards, and should leave the country.  Told us we shouldn't dare open our mouths.

Now, they see we were right.

They are shifting toward us, we are not budging an inch in our clear statement that President Bush is a constant liar, that the war in Iraq was crap, fought alone only because the greedy Bush/Limbaughians wanted to keep all of the rebuilding and oil contracts for themselves.  Every death is on Bush's hands, because it should be an international peacekeeping force in there right now.

And still the President has no plan.  General Tommy Franks testified before Congress yesterday that we could be there for four years.  Rumsfeld said it is costing us 4 billion dollars a month (which would have been shared if we went through the UN.)

And Osama is still out there.  Korea is making weapons.  Our nation's credibility is shot.  Our soldiers feel like useless "sitting ducks," target practice for resentful Iraqi assasins-in-training.

Go ahead,  Insult us now.  Call us unpatriotic now.

Or, better yet, why don't you start reading and paying attention to us.  You just might learn something.

Thanks to our loyal readers - the ones who know what is right and important.  Thanks to those like Howard Dean, John Kerry, Bob Graham, and Dennis Kucinich who were strong enough to stand along with us.

Screw Lieberman, Congresswoman Jane Harman, John Edwards.

People wonder how, as The Moderate Independent, we so often attack President Bush and his brand of Republican.  Doesn't that make us biased?  Doesn't that make us lefties?  Doesn't that make us liberal, Green, commie, un-American?

No.  Quite simply, it makes us right.  And as moderate independents, that is all we care about:  the truth, and what is best for America.