That was 5 years after "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq and 4 years after the Taliban had been "eliminated" from Afghanistan, both according to GWB. On the positive side, there were no longer any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or Afghanistan not in American hands. The "smoking gun" of terrorism in Iraq was not a mushroom cloud but "Shock and Awe", bombs, bangs and flashes from America, signalling a strong desire for peace on the part of the American President and Vice President. Lots of peace.

Don't know why it was so lively here. One had only to listen to the President, and everything was fine. Kool-Aid for the ears. It would be nice to have an imprecise memory of those days.