‘The fact that Bush would engage so openly in such murderous cynicism was a telling revelation: it showed, or rather confirmed, that America was being led by a brutal, mocking, heedless Caligula, a spoiled, shallow, vain & selfish fool, a moral psychopath incapable of ordinary human empathy.

The reaction of the "journalists" present was another soul-sinking revelation: they laughed. Oh, how they laughed. "What a kidder this Dubya is, eh? What important insiders we all are – real players, tough & savvy – sharing this special moment of "knowing" laughter with the president!"

As far as I know, not a single person walked out in protest, not a single "journalist" refused to take part in this open mockery of the dead – our own & the tens of thousands of Iraqis who had died for the WMD chimera that Bush now found so funny.’

Killing Joke: The Day the American Republic Died