Snipped from TheNation.com.

I have not heard much about the late Mr. Mailer, but one of our contributors, Stan Nodvik, notified me of this spry old man, and he seemed like my kind of guy. He was one of the few that saw the whole Bush, Iraq, fascism and school grade idiocy at the very beginning before 99% of everyone else. Unfortunately, last Sat. the 10th of Nov., Norman Mailer died at the age of 84 — another great intellectual warrior lost.

Here is a small portion of the article:

Mailer did not hesitate to suggest that Bush and his compatriots were setting up “a pre-fascistic atmosphere in America” and he saw the war in Iraq as an imperialistic endeavor destined–as all such attempts are–to diminish democracy at home.

“Iraq is the excuse for moving in an imperial direction,” Mailer wrote on the eve of the conflict. “War with Iraq, as they originally conceived it, would be a quick, dramatic step that would enable them to control the Near East as a powerful base — not least because of the oil there, as well as the water supplies from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers–to build a world empire.”

Mailer recognized in the president’s schoolboy militarism the most dangerous of instincts. So it was that, when Bush made his 2003 appearance in flight-suit drag before a sign declaring “Mission Accomplished” as part of the first–though certainly not the last–celebration of the fantasy of “victory” in Iraq, Mailer responded with a critique that remains the most damning assessment of a president who has known more than his share of damnation.