I've been getting books from the Conservative Book Club. This might surprise some people who know me, but suffice it to say that I think it's best to keep track of your enemies and their thinking.

To make a long story short, a book by FOX Network's favorite felon Oliver North came in today. Since I'm still recovering from the food poisoning and have spent a lot of time on the toilet today, I had the opportunity to flip through the book a bit (I won't stress the irony). I came across a passage that I think is very interesting in light of President Bush being criticized by ex-Treasury secretery Paul O'Neill for being hell-bent on invading Iraq even before the September 11th attacks (gods, I hate the catch-phrase “9/11”).

This, from North's book, from a chapter dated 11 March, 2003;

“‘This MPS offload was a lot easier than during the first Gulf War, because of all the contract stuff,’ says the gunnery sergeant, pointing around the area - and he looks at me, knowing he's baited the hook.

‘Okay, I'll bite. What “contract stuff”?’ I reply.

‘The construction and logistics contractors, Colonel,’ the gunny answers. ‘The civilian outfits that put all this stuff up. They have been working on these base camps out here in the desert for more than a year. This stuff didn't just happen overnight. Some very smart people started planning for this gunfight in the desert a long time before we got our predeployment orders back in December.’”

Okay. So it's no smoking gun. But in my estimation it seems that if contractors were offloading equipment in Kuwait over a year before that (sometime in early 2002), it brings the White House's criticism of Paul O'Neill into question. We were sabre rattling at the time and trying to build a coalition with other nations to force Saddam Hussein to comply with U.N. resolutions, but weren't we mostly concentrating on Afghanistan? If so, why was the United States already laying the groundwork for the invasion of Iraq if the decision had not long been made to invade? Are we to believe that, if the decision had not already been made to invade Iraq prior to the September 11th attacks, contractors could have been awarded their contracts and be already fulfilling them (putting equipment on the ground in Kuwait in preparation for an invasion of Iraq) just 4-5 months later? Excuse me. Bullshit. As I said; wasn't our first target the Taliban in Afghanistan? What were we doing positioning equipment in Kuwait that early?

President Bush signed an order three days after the 2001 terror attacks in New York and Washington that authorized up to one million guard and reserve troops to be called to serve for up to two years. Amid the uncertainties surrounding the nation after the attacks, this seems prudent. But I dunno. Did he already have something larger than going after the Taliban?

Geez, I wish I was a Conservative. This shit wouldn't worry me so much then. I could wrap myself in the flag and sleep soundly with my Bible beside my bed knowing that “a man of God” is finally in the White House. But from my mostly moderate point of view, we are living in frightening times indeed; and it's not because of Saddam Hussein.