Nowhere to go but up?

So we end the year with Saddam Hussein hanged and the 3000th American death in Iraq. As much as the Bush Administration would like to put weight on Saddam's death, it has effectively changed nothing. If "democracy" exists over there, it's almost entirely on paper and not in practice. Even if the average Iraqi citizen could force away the grim reality of their incompetently occupied nation and look to some shiny, Neverland version of American democracy, we as a nation are not excelling as a beacon of hope.

As Glenn Greenwald said, to say our current system is superior than the Baathist regime is setting a low bar for what the United States of America is supposed to be. The "great experiment" of the 18th century is beginning to more cracks than an Arctic ice shelf. We have a responsibility, as a nation heavily invested in the welfare of the world, to prevent ourselves going down the historical path to an empire of complacent overlords and an incurious citizenry. To say this is the year that we start is naive at best, considering that none of us will ever know the true breadth of the domino effect of events. But now that we have a majority in Congress that is more predisposed to listen, it's time for us to speak up, loud and long, for doing right not only by ourselves, but for the powerless as well.

We can do it. So... happy New Year.