The Reality of War

In his interview with Barbara Walters to be broadcast Friday evening, President Bush says he has no regrets about his administration's decision to wage war in Iraq, despite inspectors' failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in the country — the chief rationale for the March 2003 invasion and toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime. Despite the deaths of more than 1,300 U.S. military personnel and the multibillion-dollar price tag, the ouster of Saddam justified the invasion, he says.

But Iraqis have paid an immense price too, often with their lives, a price that doesn't seem to be included in Bush's calculus. For glimpses of their pain and suffering visit Crisis Pictures and consider what this mendacious mediocrity of a president has wrought.