Six years it has been. Six years so very long ago, and six years still very short.

A child born that terrible blue sky morning prepares this September to head off to school. A freshman made suddenly aware the meaning of real terror after living only in terror of her first days at high school is now an upperclassman at college. A sixteen acre hole in the heart of a nation slowly fills with concrete and rebar, a sky-scraping phoenix soon to rise from the ashes.

Six years in which so very much is different, and six years in which too much is the same.

We all remember where we were and what we felt on the morning of September 11th, 2001, when calamity glided down upon us out of a clear blue sky. We remember the feelings of fear and trembling, of sadness and loss. Most of all we remember the images, the so many awful images indelibly seared on our souls.

When comedian Lewis Black said sardonically that he knew we shouldn’t go to Iraq, and he was just sitting on his couch, he also echoed how numerous Americans felt about the stolen presidential election of 2004.  On November 3, of that same year, we woke up and felt that, once again, we had been had without knowing all the facts.  We felt it because we knew that what had happened in 2000 had not been fixed.  Sadly, before the 2004 election we proceeded on a noble mission to register thousands of more voters than ever before, believing that the truth of a great turnout would be the antidote to voter fraud, as if a higher paying job would resolve being robbed at the bus stop every day.

However, they, the GOP, had done it again, but how could we prove it, and what could we do, especially since another Democratic contender passively walked away from us?  A collective depression set in and then we began the stages of grief, but somehow we weren’t able to go beyond denial.  Fortunately, some followed the inference of the last election, and lifted themselves above the post-election stupor in order to find out exactly what happened.

United for Peace and Justice, the country's largest anti-war coalition, has produced an assessment of the situation on the ground in Iraq that contrasts sharply with the projected conclusions of  the  so-called Petraeus Report – actually written within the White House.  Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator of the group, which claims 1400 members, states:  " We feel it is essential to provide a true picture of what the shattered lives of the 25 million Iraqis look like today. Prepared by Phyllis Bennis and Erik Leaver, researchers at the Institute for Policy Studies, Iraq: The People's Report  takes a look at what this war has cost Iraqis and the U.S."

Iraq: The People's Report notes that:

• two million Iraqis have fled the war to seek hard-to-find refuge in neighboring countries, and an additional two million Iraqis have been forced by war-fueled violence to flee their homes and  remain displaced and homeless inside Iraq.

• most Iraqis have electricity for only about five hours a day, clean water remains scarce for most and unobtainable for many, and Iraq's oil production remains a fraction of what it was before war.

It evokes a tragedy that marks an epoch. From the outset, the warfare state has exploited "9/11," a label at once too facile and too laden with historic weight -- giving further power to the tacit political axiom that perception is reality.

     Often it seems that media coverage is all about perception, especially when the underlying agendas are wired into huge profits and geopolitical leverage. If you associate a Big Mac or a Whopper with a happy meal or some other kind of great time, you’re more likely to buy it. If you connect 9/11 with a need for taking military action and curtailing civil liberties, you’re more likely to buy what the purveyors of war and authoritarian government have been selling for the past half-dozen years.

Are you here to communicate your own view, that of the White House, or both?

Please name all the people with whom you have had communications in preparing for this testimony.

What does the White House expect from your testimony?

Are you submitting a written report to this Congress?  Did you ever plan to do so?  What changed your mind?

Are you submitting a written report to the White House?  Why not?

Are you aware that the President is required by law to submit a written report on progress in Iraq to this Congress by September 15th?  Have you been or do you expect to be involved in the preparation of that report? 

Are you aware that it is a felony to intentionally mislead or defraud the Congress, for example in the manner the White House did in making its case for this war in 2003?

Do you feel completely free to speak openly and honestly with us here today?

What do you believe is the ultimate goal of the current occupation of Iraq? 

Do you believe that goal can ever be achieved?

How long would you estimate it would take?