I began political writing in the early days of the Iraq War. I felt it was my duty, especially as a veteran, to stand up and make my voice heard, to try and stop the unfolding disaster. I retired my pen years later, when it appeared that it was finally over.

Clearly, that optimism was unjustified. In the wake of this week's attack on Syria, we've been forced to endure the same old neocons spouting the same lies on the same news outlets. This is, of course, yet more evidence that in contemporary America, the ruling class is never held accountable for anything. In 2008, the banking elite looted the financial system and nearly collapsed the world economy, and no one of any prominence was punished in any significant way. In 2003, our political leaders spewed waves of deliberately falsified propaganda in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Thousands of our soldiers died, a million Iraqis perished, and trillions of dollars were wasted. Yet no one was ever held liable for what they had done.