It really comes down to this

I saw "No End in Sight" last night.

"No End in Sight" actually did not tell me much I had not already read or heard. But it put it all together in a couple of hours of chilling chronology of the worst international relations debacle this country has ever perpetrated. And more than that - the actions of incompetence and arrogance at the least, and probable criminal malfeasance in the execution of the invasion and non-execution of the occupation collectively constitute a crime against humanity. 26 million Iraqis, who were suffering under Saddam, to be sure, are suffering far worse now. 4 million have been displaced, up to a million killed. The place is a shambles; even those still alive and not displaced go without water and electricity for days at a time in 140 degree heat.

And here is the tough part. My country did this.

The country I was proud of. It allowed a criminal enterprise to steal an election and then use its military to further their own nefarious goals of world domination and self-enrichment. It still allows that. America is now hated around the world. Not just bush. America. My country. All 300 million of us. Because we are responsible.

I read "The Assault on Reason" a couple of months ago. It describes how we as a people have allowed ourselves to be disenfranchised. We the People no longer govern. We abdicated. The United States of America will soon be only a vague memory, like the Ottoman Empire or Austria-Hungary.

And the world is likely to say "good riddance."

But there could be a glimmer of hope. We the People could offer the world an olive branch. We the People could say "we are sorry; we knew not what we did." We the People could offer to the world the man who should have been President, who we elected, but who we then allowed criminals to displace in a coup that half of us cheered over, and who has spent the ensuing years as an ambassador to the world delivering a message of warning and also of hope. We could beg their forgiveness and say we offer to take a true leadership role now in saving the planet. We could offer that as a make-good. It would not undo the crimes we have committed, and many will continue to hate us, as is their right, but it might allow us to begin to put behind us the shame of what we have allowed our country to do. The Germans and Japanese managed to overcome their shame after WWII, and so can we. But it starts with getting the cabal out of power and getting the best of the best in charge.