This volume contains essays drawn from The Kensington Review, covering the period from 2002 through the first half of 2003. During this period, the American government eroded civil liberties in the aftermath of the Al Qaeda murders of September 11, 2001 and launched a misguided war against Iraq over non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Shortly thereafter, the occupation of Iraq started to go horribly wrong, and the Bush administration found itself unable to find its way out of the quagmire. This undermined American foreign policy around the world. At home, Wall Street's greed went largely unchecked, the Democratic Party acted as an enabler rather than as an opposition, and efforts to protect American civilians were more cosmetic than effective.