64 Americans killed in Iraq since the President declared the end of hostilities. And He’s only 57, so congratulations are in order. You know like when some octogenarian shoots 79 on the local golf course and gets his picture in Sports Illustrated. I guess the right wing zealots who attacked war protesters as unpatriotic have gone mute. You can’t support the troops if you question their mission, they rabidly shouted like new-age McCarthyites. Where are the flag waivers now as we piss away $1 billion a week to watch our soldiers die? Here’s what is known today: Saddam is still alive having had no weapons of mass destruction (after the “91 campaign), Halliburton garnered $600 million in no-bid contracts and Blair Hornstine’s famous “no blood for oil” slogan was lifted from Jaques Chirac.

And W’s infamous speech where he claimed Iraq tried to acquire African uranium has formally been exposed as a lie. First the President tried to fob off the “inaccuracy” on the British Intelligence Service. When that failed he hoisted CIA director George Tenet as the fall guy. Congress is fast forming an angry mob and Tenet may well lose his job. Beltway observers laud the spymaster for admitting responsibility and sacrificing himself. But at what personal cost? Tenet will no doubt land on his feet as an overpaid lobbyist or cosseted University Provost. I may be old school but Bill Casey made a real sacrifice. When Iran-Contra threatened to take down the White House, Big Bill took himself out on the operating table during surgery for a “newly discovered” brain tumor. Now that, boys and girls, is taking one for the team.