You know the speech, ace. The bullshit speech that led us into a bullshit war.

Yeah, that's the one.

Leftie bloggerAtrios has a great entry summing up all the pigheaded, rush-to-war idiocy that greeted Powell's speech. Definitely worth a read. Particularly memorable is this bit by alleged liberal Richard Cohen at the Washington Post:

"The evidence he presented to the United Nations -- some of it circumstantial, some of it absolutely bone-chilling in its detail -- had to prove to anyone that Iraq not only hasn't accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a doubt still retains them. Only a fool -- or possibly a Frenchman -- could conclude otherwise."

Of course, in reality, only a fool would have bought Powell's wafer-thin claims.

Richard Cohen, alleged fool

Satellite photographs showing buildings, some with — GASP! — trucks parked outside of them?! Oh no!

And what's this?! Cartoon drawings of WMD-producing mobile labs that Saddam may or may not have?!! DEAR GOD, NO!!

And here! A vial of anthrax??!?!?! Just like the anthrax that Saddam could possibly have, maybe hidden perchance somewhere conceivably within his alleged country?!?!?! SWEET FUCKING CHRIST!! Bomb him! Bomb him now!

Every single person listed in Atrios' blog entry should have been fired. Period. Yet they're all gainfully employed today, most by the very same publications that put out their drek four years ago. How anyone can be so wrong about something so obvious — especially a journalist, who should be more incredulous than the general populace — is beyond me.

People often cite Colin Powell as one of the few decent men to come out of the Bush administration, but I can't agree. This speech sold a scared nation on an unnecessary war based on lies. Many other factors led us into Iraq, to be sure, but in some small part, this speech killed thousands.

That's all I got for now, ace. Super Sunday has given way to Stuper Monday, and I'm still shaking the cobwebs from my brain. Rest easy.