This story in they NY Times today among many others starting yesterday describe the accelerated pullout of Iraq of up to three brigades before Bush leaves office. The main reason mentioned is the need for more troops in Afghanistan. But we were misdirected in 2002 about what was going on with the Iraq buildup.

I personally watched C-5 cargo planes leaving the local BRAC'd AFB climbing and headed East in the summer of 2002 and thought to myself, "Those SOB's are building up to invade Iraq." Denials of an Iraq buildup were everywhere including this article from a military mouthpiece, GlobalSecurity.org. This article was written in August 2002. I watched the C-5's starting in early July 2002. Google has plenty of other stories about the Iraq buildup and the denials.

So now when John Bolton tells us that Israel will attack Iran before a new president is sworn in I sit up and listen.

Labor Day is coming quickly. We were told by Bush's chief of staff in September 2002 that "From an advertising point of view, you don't launch a new product line until after Labor Day," But product production has already started. Get ready.