It's been four fun-filled years

Yeah, it's officially been 4 years since the war started. Sometimes I look at the news and catch myself thinking "Holy shit! That thing is still going on?" I mean, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, and even I can see through all the crap they're putting out on why we need to stay there. And so is the entire American public, who consistently polls over 60% in favor of leaving immediately.

But to lighten your overwhelming depression over the fact that this war is still going on (having well-eclipsed World War II in length at this point), here's a fun way to laugh at the right:

Via Jackson Williams at the Huffpo, a look back at what Bill Kristol and the gang o' superconservatives at the Weekly Standard found so very amusing before the war. (Of course, being the cutting-edge trend setter I am, I already pointed out all of this shit over 2 years ago...)

Here in our office there’s this giant archive of newsclips, transcripts, and Internet postings we collected in the months preceding the war, wherein a world community of jackasses confidently predicted that the events lately unfolding on our television screens could not and would not ever take place. And you can imagine the temptation, we’re sure: A lesser SCRAPBOOK would throw open the file boxes and run through the streets with treasures like these, laughing hysterically.

“This invasion of Iraq, if it goes off, will join the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Desert One, Beirut, and Somalia in the history of military catastrophe. What will set it apart, distinguishing it for all time, is the immense–and transparent–political stupidity.”

–Chris Matthews, San Francisco Chronicle, August 25, 2002

* * *

“Iraqis hate the United States government even more than they hate Saddam, and they are even more distrustful of America’s intentions than Saddam’s. . . . [I]f President Bush thinks our invasion and occupation will go smoothly because Iraqis will welcome us, then [he] is deluding himself.”

–New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, October 4, 2002

* * *

“If history is a guide, you cannot subdue a large and hostile city except by destroying it completely. Short of massacre, we will not inherit a pacified Iraq. . . . To support ‘the groundwork’ for this effort is to support a holocaust, quite soon, against Iraqi civilians and also against the troops on both sides. That is what victory means.”

–James K. Galbraith on the American Prospect website, April 1, 2003

* * *

“Cheney [down arrow] Tells ‘Meet the Press’ just before war, ‘We will be greeted as liberators.’ An arrogant blunder for the ages.”

–Newsweek, April 7, 2003 edition

* * *

“Is Wolfowitz really so ignorant of history as to believe the Iraqis would welcome us as ‘their hoped-for liberators’?”

–Eric Alterman in the April 21, 2003, issue of the Nation