You are listening to another no fair remembering stuff, the Tuesday edition of the Professional

Left Podcast, and available wherever you get your podcasts, and at our website, proleftpod.com,

where you can also contribute to this podcast. There's a Patreon button at our website,

or you can mail us a letter and or contribution at the Professional Left Podcast, P.O. Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois, 62791.

And it's not safe for work. In this episode, we are marking the 20th anniversary of the United States invasion of Iraq. This is not going to be a history of U.S. foreign policy, although we will talk about history. And it's not meant to be a definitive timeline of events leading up to the invasion of Iraq and the aftermath. We realize we're courting the disapproval of the Internet's but you forgot about Brigade. And we're fine with that. We realized we're courting the disapproval of the internet's, but you forgot about

brigade. And we're fine with that. We've been doing that since 2003 also. Yeah. But you forgot

about this one thing. It's really important to me. Yeah. Yeah. Got it. Got it. But this is more about

the nature of what would come to mind when future grandkids ask us what we remember about the Iraq War and particularly drawing from our own blogs.

Yes.

I have to confess that I didn't blog as much about the Iraq War as someone else who did not have three children under six and two of them in diapers and one of them

diagnosed with autism in 2002. So yeah, I was a bit preoccupied, but I was still outraged. My first post

ever was Election Day 2004 from Birmingham, Alabama, where I lived. And I noted on my new blog that 21 Republicans ran unopposed on the Shelby County, Alabama

ballot.

And my first post, I'm coming to go on a blog anniversary, actually, was in April of 2005.

I've been a commenter for about a year before that at other blogs.

But by that time, the Iraq War had been raging for about two years, and George W. Bush had been

reelected.

Yay.

So let's start with some dates.

After a year of aggressively propagandizing the lie that there's some link between Iraq and the terrorist attacks of 9-11, the Bush

administration launched the illegal and unprovoked invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, 20 years ago.

Now, a few days before the invasion, a group called the Dixie Chicks, who have since changed their

...