THREE YEARS LATER: DEATH, DESTRUCTION AND WASTE

In the church of LOST's lineage, today is Saint Joseph's day, the unsung hero of the Catholic New Testament, whose human impulse was to sneak away quietly after finding out that his virgin wife was in a family way, but who adhered to celestial intercession, rejected running away, and gave into a Divine plan.

The admittedly annoying swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano on this fabled day, and many a Californio has traveled for decades to watch that natural spectacle, itself, too, a phenomenon worth observing at least once.

Since 2003, March 19th has been given another significance. Today marks the third anniversary of the debacle unleashed by George W. Bush in Iraq. As we have learned since that time, commencement of this wretched fiasco has been near to Bush's heart since long before 9/11/01 "changed everything." Paul O'Neill and Richard Clarke both told the country that invading Iraq and deposing Hussein had been on this President's docket since taking office. We sat back and let the Karl Rove smear machine marginalize these two men, whom history will judge as patriots. We've learned other things as well - or at least we've had other lessons become available to us since 2003. Now we know that, in no particular order:

Pope John Paul II was right about the war;
The Downing Street Memos note that the decision to go to war in Iraq was made in 2002 but the "Facts were being fixed around the policy;"
We know that in 2002 something called the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) was started, and its sole purpose was to drum up support for invading Iraq. We know that Condoleeza Rice, Scooter Libby and Dick Cheney were members of WHIG;
We know the weapons inspectors' reports that they weren't finding anything were accurate, and their work should have been allowed to run its course;
The yellowcake Uranium story - told to America in the 2003 State of the Union address - was a fraud, and Joe WIlson's reward for telling us so was the destruction of his wife's CIA career;
We know that Dick Cheney lied through his rotted teeth on Meet the Press on Sunday March 16, 2003 when he said we "know in fact that Iraq has reconstituted nuclear weapons"
Because of John Zogby's latest polling, we know the troops have heavily bought into the lie (82%) that the Iraq war was to pay Hussein back for his participation in 9/11 - participation that the Bush Administration has since grudginingly admitted here at home was non-existent
We know that 2300 American Service personnel are dead, and nearly 20,000 others have lost limbs or worse.
We know somebody tried to lie and politicize the death of NFL star turned ranger Pat Tillman;
We know that wearing the "wrong t-shirt" someplace can get you forcibly removed and arrested.
We know that the U.S. has been torturing people, spiriting away others to places and countries who are good at torture, and that we're holding hundreds of people in communicado with no charges filed against them, and no access to counsel or court.
We know that the President has been wiretapping people without warrants - which means anyone that the administration wishes to spy on is a target. We know that surveillance has been conducted of such bloodthirsty tyrants as groups of Quakers and Vegans here at home.
We know that that all of the big push to go into Iraq is starting up again - this time its being targeted toward Iran.

Have we learned anything? If not, it will be a long time before this day returns to its original significance of commemmorating a man of peaceful submission.