And remember that thousands of Americans died for it

We've been hearing for weeks about how the US has been building huge, permanent-like military bases in Iraq. It's only a matter of time before the real purpose behind our invasion of Iraq will finally be made evident to all but the thickest of us: permanent occupation of an oil-producing country in the middle east under an oh-so-friendly government. We'll just see who ends up with the contracts, my friends. We'll see. Meanwhile, Gary Hart is all over that shit:

A few weeks ago, I published an opinion piece entitled "And Now for Their Next Trick." The piece predicted that a new Iraqi government, more or less picked by the U.S., would invite the U.S. to stay in Iraq as a stabilizing force and that we were constructing permanent military bases for this purpose, all in accordance with the original neoconservative/imperial agenda in the Middle East.

I have been pleading with the American press corps for months to ask the Bush administration one simple question, a question designed to expose our true agenda: "Are we, or are we not, constructing permanent military bases in Iraq?" Full stop.