A few random thoughts on May Day, May This-Administration-Be-Held-To-Account-For-the-Horrors-They-Have-Unleashed Day, um— Mission Accomplished Day.

I hate to link to Glenn Greenwald so often, really I do. But his compare-and-contrast column on Israel’s failed Lebanon excursion last year and our involvement in Iraq is a must-read. One quick quote: “Mature societies do not make decisions by wondering what the Bad People want and then automatically doing the opposite. That is the mindset of a child.”

In other news, Riverbend is leaving Iraq. Her blog about life in Baghdad has been fascinating reading for some time. Now, like literally millions of other Iraqis, her family has decided there is no other choice but to leave the country. We can only wish them the best in what has to be a chancy and emotionally wrenching move. As she says, “It's difficult to decide which is more frightening- car bombs and militias, or having to leave everything you know and love, to some unspecified place for a future where nothing is certain.”

On this fourth anniversary of “Mission Accomplished,” it’s interesting to read this transcript of an April 24, 2003 lecture at K-State given by reporter Ashleigh Banfield shortly after her return from Iraq. Especially when you consider she lost her job at MSNBC as a result of the lecture. Via Digby, who has an abridged version of Banfield’s speech and talks about the consequences of her truth-telling.