As the rule of one of the most damaging presidential administrations in the history of the United States begins to come to an end, and the president contemplates on the legacy he’ll leave behind — and grows a little more desperate to cover up blatantly illegal activities — the delusional misconceptions of an arguably certifiable never-elected president continue to grow.

Despite the fact that there never was a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida, or that almost 4,000 of our soldiers have been killed with scores more wounded and maimed, or that almost two million innocent Iraqi civilians have been slaughtered or displaced by an illegally started occupation, president Bush’s latest delusions involve defending war actions by citing faith and romanticizing fighting the war in Afghanistan. I don’t know when fascism became religion, nor do I have any idea how killing people and being shot at is romantic.

McClatchy news reported that after extensive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents captured after the U.S. invaded Iraq, it shows what has been known for some time — Saddam Hussein’s regime had no direct operational links with Osama bin Laden or Al Qaida — according to a Pentagon-sponsored study that was scheduled to be released this week.

But after realizing how politically damaging the report was, the Pentagon decided not to publish it online. You can order it directly from the Pentagon, but be warned that if you do, your information will be entered into a database for who knows what reason. It will not be emailed, only mailed on a CD. It appears the Pentagon has no desire to send it to reporters either, but a copy of the report (PDF) is available from ABC News.

Not that it comes as any surprise since it was previously revealed by Democracy Now that the Bush Administration lied 935 times (and counting) preceding the Iraq War, both to the public and to Congress, the latter of which is an impeachable offense.

President Bush and his top cabinet members used an alleged relationship between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida, as well as alleged weapons of mass destruction, as arguments for invading Iraq after the attacks of 9/11, regardless of the fact that the government pinned blame for the attacks on ‘terrorists’ that were primarily from Saudi Arabia.

High Cost Of War In Iraq

The fifth anniversary of the invasion in Iraq is coming up on March 20. A new book titled ‘The Three Trillion Dollar War’ estimates the cost of the war to the U.S. to be three trillion dollars, and another three trillion dollars to the rest of the world — much higher than the Bush administration’s estimates before the war began.

So, on top of misleading Americans and the rest of the world about weapons of mass destruction and Hussein’s links to Al Qaeda, the Bush administration has misled the world about the war’s cost and has tried to cover the costs of the war as it has gone on.

Iraq became a breeding ground after it was invaded, and the only winners so far have been oil companies and defense contractors. The damage done to our troops and Iraqi’s has left this country more vulnerable should another terrorist attack occur.

A Surge In Iraq’s Violence

The Washington Post reported that the surge in Iraq — the one that supposedly transformed Iraq into an oasis of peace and tranquility — is growing less peaceful and tranquil by the day. Little mention was made in the corporately owned media about the U.S. paying insurgents, at taxpayer expense, to stop killing our troops.

Despite the fact that 12 soldiers have reportedly been killed in the past few days, the fact that U.S. Commanders have said Al-Qaida is in Iraq to stay and the fact that Petraeus admits the surge has failed, the military claims the spike in violence isn’t a trend.

Noted by the Washington Post: “When the Bush administration celebrates a 60 percent reduction in overall violence in Iraq, it’s easy to forget that this is compared with June 2007, when the sectarian civil war was raging and bombings with scores of victims were a regular occurrence. The surge managed only to reduce the level of violence from apocalyptic to agonizing — and now even those gains seem to be slipping.”

As with most of the other misadventures and delusions of the Bush administration, the surge was designed to buy the president more time in order to fix fatal flaws in presidential policies — and as noted by some, to pass the buck to the next person who becomes president — and it too will probably end up being a massive failure.

Illicit Double Standards and Secrecy

Recently president Bush made history when he vetoed a bill that would have prohibited torture, including waterboarding. In the usual tradition, Republicans in Congress, who have aided and abetted the president for seven plus year now, went along with the president and blocked attempts to override the veto.

Torturing prisoners alleged to be terrorists has resulted in death, not to mention the absence of fair trials or lack of due process and the growing number of innocent people being illegally detained. Then there’s the issues of our troops being killed and wounded — both mentally and physically — and the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi’s being killed.

Those being tortured will say and admit to anything to stop it. Those facing ‘trials,’ according to president Bush, have no right to know what they’re being charged and no way to defend themselves.

In the usual hypocritical fashion of the Bush administration, the U.S. cited China for repression and torture — saying China is an authoritarian nation that denies its people basic human rights and freedoms, harasses journalists and foreign aid workers and tortures prisoners.

Approximately 1,000 claims have reportedly been brought against the government by families of autistic children, charging that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which until recently contained thimerosal, can cause neurological damage leading to autism.

Attorneys for the Bush administration asked a federal court to order that documents on hundreds of cases of autism allegedly caused by the vaccines be kept from the public, arguing that disclosing the documents would take away the right of federal agencies to decide when and how the material should be released.

FISA Follies and Criminality

The delusional rants from the president regarding telecom immunity and passage of the FISA amendment continue. Ongoing attempts to coerce Congress to pass illegal legislation, fear-mongering rhetoric and lies continue. The president thinks Americans should thank telecoms for doing their ‘patriotic service.’

Being paid massive amounts of money with our tax dollars for performing illegal surveillance has nothing to do with patriotic service — it has everything to do with making a profit and keeping extremely illicit activities covered up.

This is just a small sampling of some of the misadventures of the Bush administration. There are thousands of other examples available, including a report card for president Bush.

While the vast majority of Republicans in the House and the Senate continue aiding and abetting war crimes while buoying a sinking president — at the risk of their careers as some are finding out after being voted out of office — one Republican Congressman has accused the Bush administration of criminality, saying they’re not cooperating with Congress. How long did it take him to figure that out?

Illegally starting a war and spying on Americans, lying to the world, falsifying information, spreading deceitful propaganda, torturing and fear-mongering in the name of God or religion is not faith — it’s more akin to devil-worshipping, not to mention the fact that it’s criminal. It’s time to put an end to the illegality, secrecy and terroristic tactics. It’s also an excellent example of how religion and politics don’t mix. Not the type of legacy one would want to leave behind.

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