The world has seen how a diabolical clique of thugs, like the neo- conservatives in the White House, seized upon a combination of events and international circumstances to commandeer the decision-making process in, ostensibly, the most democratic nation on earth, and then turned the enormous military and economic machinery of that nation towards the perpetration of one of the most horrendous crimes of humanity ever. The current American administration, controlled by a band of ideological zealots no less dangerous than the Nazis, displayed nothing but utter contempt for democracy, the rule of law and universally cherished humanitarian morals. It launched an unprovoked war against an independent nation, against the will of the international community and without a UN mandate, and it blatantly lied, forged documents and falsified information every step along the way. However poorly calculated it was, this was not so much war as it was an act of premeditated armed robbery of unprecedented magnitude and whose toll in innocent human lives and wounded and displaced persons ranges into the millions. Add to this Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and the illegal detentions and systematic torture practiced in other secret prisons and you realise how vast the distance is between the ideological rhetoric that trumpets democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights and the actual practices of the administration that paraded beneath this rhetoric.

Al-Ahram Weekly: Opinion

If we leave out the "unprecedented magnitude", I reckon this is a fairly reasonable assessment.

Hear hear. This administration has shown utter contempt for both its citizens and the people of Iraqi. Through guns, bombs, outright lies, the suspension of rights, and draconian prison camps, this example of naked American aggression has shown that the people in charge of the US are the enemies of democracy, not its saviors. This war has cheapened us all.

A comment I read on this blog here says it all.

If it’s true that they [al-Qaeda] hate us [the USA] for our freedom, then Bush and Cheney are apeasers of the first order.

Not unprecendented, but right on the money by any reasonable standard.