The decision had already been made. To go to war. Probably at least a year ago.

What a sucker I was to have thought otherwise.

Remember, just a few weeks back, when Iraq said arms inspectors could enter the country. I, and millions of others no doubt, breathed a collective sigh of relief. War had been averted, at least for the time.

The arms inspectors have so far turned up little in the way of weapons of mass destruction. Bush said Iraq is hiding the stuff.

Big surprise.

Then it finally dawned on me, like a punch on top of the head. Bush already made the decision to go to war, months ago. It doesn’t matter what the arms inspectors do. If they find a load of poisoned weapons crap, we’ll go to war. If they don’t find anything, we’ll go to war too.

Bush simply believes (possibly rightly) that Saddam is too dangerous to be allowed to continue, regardless of concessions.

The die has been cast. It’s war.

Bush may be irritated Iraq threw a wild joker card onto the table (a skillful move by Saddam) by letting arms inspectors back into the country. That makes the call to arms more difficult, because Bush has to wait. He has to let the inspectors come in, and he has to maintain the fiction of seeking a peaceful solution while the inspectors snoop around. It’s a pain in the butt.

If we have anything to thank these weapons inspectors for, it’s for the postponement of hostilities at least until after Christmas.

Bush had toned down the venom of his earlier saber-rattling pronouncements that he was going after Iraq and, “UN get the hell out of the way.” He said he was willing to consider “options” other than war.

This was in all probability a lie designed for public consumption.

There’s never been any other option, for at least a year, of not invading Iraq.

D-Day, or in this case, I (Iraq Invasion)-Day, has probably been set.

Bush maintains that a war with Iraq will be over quickly. However, street fighting, block by block, in the rubble of fortified strongpoints in Baghdad, could cost thousands of casualties.

The Bush Administration said they have proof of Iraq’s hiding bad weapons. They also have proof of Iraq’s complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks. They always have proof of things they won’t demonstrate to the American people. The most secretive presidential administration in American history is moving forward with plans----all in our alleged best interest.

We don’t know enough, you and I, to make informed decisions anyway. We’ll have to sit back and watch it happen.

History may prove me wrong, and if we attack Iraq, I hope that’s the case.

Because I’ll go on record as saying, I think it’s a mistake.