Over the last couple of weeks, we've passed a couple of historic milestones. On June 6th, people around the world commemorated the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the huge WWII ground invasion of German-occupied Europe. The day before that, former President Reagan died after ten years of being virtually hidden from the public consciousness.

After months of falling in the polls, the Prez thought it was a good idea to hang his hat on history. He compared himself to Reagan and the war in Iraq to World War II. For a man who has called everything he did with his life before turning 41 as "youthful indiscretions," Bush seems really hot to talk about history these days.

I'll give Bush these two surface comparisons: both Reagan and Bush 2 are presidents and part of the Republican party. The War in Iraq is a war, and so was World War II. Of course, this is kind of like saying Jimi Hendrix played music and Britney Spears plays music--so they are exactly the same. I'm not sure if there's anyone on the planet who would agree with this blanket statement.

Bush vs. Reagan

I was a kid when Reagan got elected. My parents hated him--this definitely clouded my view of that Prez. He was elected because the country was in bad shape. The late 70s were economically depressing. We had little sense of pride in our country, and these circumstances made voters want a change in leadership. Looking back, you can't really blame them.

Both Bush 2 and Reagan spent the country into record-setting deficits. They ramped up military spending. They both wanted a missile defense system, even though it is (and always has been) unnecessary and has no record of working.

Reagan did a few things the current Prez would never do. He raised taxes when he had to. He talked to his "enemies" on the other side of the Iron Curtain, which eventually helped bring down the Berlin wall and usher in the fall of communism in Europe. Reagan, for all his tough talk, never did go to war with any country--except Grenada, which was more like a glorified special op. And Reagan was in the White House for eight years.

More U.S. citizens and military people have died under Bush's watch than any US President dating all the way back to Nixon.

Which brings us to war.

The Iraq War vs. World War II

World War II began with aggression from Germany, as they began to invade and take over countries in Europe. The U.S. did not get into the war until 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

The Iraq War began because the Prez gave a huge laundry list of reasons to invade--all of which have turned out to be lies, gross exaggerations or inept miscalculations. We can't even take the higher moral ground of saying "at least we're not torturing and killing Iraqis in prison." In other words, the U.S. getting involved in WWII was a reaction to an aggression. The U.S. going to war with Iraq was our aggression. We started it.

D-Day was mulled over and planned for years. It has been suggested D-Day could have occurred in 1942 or 43, but FDR and Churchill wisely waited until all the necessary personnel, arms and plans were ready. They waited until victory was more feasible. They also talked and made plans for a post-war world.

The U.S. invaded Iraq after about six months of planning. No planning was made for post-war Iraq. Very little attempt was made at building a coalition (although they used that word to describe the small contributions of a few countries) or at including the views and concerns of nations around the world. Nothing was planned for what would happen after we rolled into Baghdad--we just planned the roll in. We invaded Iraq when we did so Bush could campaign on his great successes in defeating terrorism (or whatever) in this election year.

But Bush 2 can claim there is one important difference: He brought this on himself. He is the reason we're fighting two wars right now. His hollow economic policies are the reason we're not in a stronger recovery than we are now. Recovery from the crash of 2001 was inevitable--the strength of the recovery is what is affected by the fiscal policies of the administration.

The only thing to remember in November is this: do you feel better about the country and your life today than you did four years ago?

Matt Worley is voting for change, because anything is better than this shit.