Yes, we were outnumbered and outshouted by the right-wingers. We were called traitors and un-American. In the glow of victory after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, the right-wingers gloated and gleefully attacked all of us who were "wrong" about the war.

Except that we weren't.

Everything we knew and said before the invasion, came to pass. No WMDs were found. US soldiers were not greeted as liberators by wildly cheering throngs of Iraqis. The occupation turned out to be longer and deadlier than the invasion. Iraq became a new training ground for terrorists. The Middle East is more unstable than ever before.

Now, the same people who gave us the Iraq war are trying to gin up a war with Iran. The same arguments and the same tall tales are being trotted out again. And the people who were called loons and traitors in 2002 are again saying that attacking Iran would be an even bigger mistake. So, who is being listened to? The people who were wrong about Iraq, of course.

We've gone through so many iterations of the Bush doctrine with Iraq that I've lost the thread. But this appears to be a whole new version of the Bush doctrine: Never give up. Never admit defeat no matter how many soldiers are dying each week (especially since none of them are related to you.) Keep fighting -- no matter the cost in treasure or to our nation's soul. Because, as long as we keep fighting no one can say we lost. No one can say we cut and ran.

As Karl Rove exits stage right with his ruined dreams of rightist hegemony, all the political signs and portents tell us that America is turning the other way. No doubt the departing “boy genius” would dispute that assertion as liberal wishful thinking, as would many on the right. But they cannot so easily dismiss The Economist, an avowedly conservative voice that is among the oldest and most respected periodicals in the world.

My friend Bernie says he's not only tired of making excuses for Democrats, he's sick and tired of it. "We've worked our backsides off since 9-11 getting people in office with the courage to derail Bush and Cheney's Constitutional death train," Bernie wailed. "We had our feet on the ground, our eyes on the prize, our noses to the grindstone, our backs to the wall, our shoulders to the wheel --" he paused, mentally clicking off body parts.

"Your head in the clouds?" I suggested helpfully.

... pretty much everything Bush is not.