From Ridiculous to Absurd - $70B More for War

At the risk of being labeled "unpatriotic," one must confess that priorities seem to be more than a little out of whack when the President chooses to cut Medicaid, home heating assistance to the poor, education and other domestic support program funding by $37B one day and then turn around two days later and ask for twice as much to fund unnecessary foreign adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bush Administration is asking Congress to approve a request for more than $70B for the war effort, but only $18B for domestic spending for Katrina and Rita Hurricane victims. GOP flacks are quick to label anyone who questions this gross dislocation of priorities as unwilling to support the troops. The problem with that sophistry is that it fails to address the question of why the troops are there and whether they should remain there absorbing so large a segment of the American economy. We keep hearing the mantra that the war in Iraq is vital to American security. What is the actual basis for that assertion? Iraq never attacked the US. Saddam Hussein never launched any offensive impacting or targeting the United States or even US citizens abroad. Al-Qaida was not even a factor in the government of Iraq. Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were sworn enemies. It is alleged, but not proven that Saddam Hussein plotted an assasination attempt against George H. W. Bush. But then it is equally true that George W. Bush plotted tha assasination of Hugo Chavez, though not conclusively proven.

When and how have the American people become so cowed and unintelligent as to accept, without any factual support or justification, that a war in Iraq is vital to American "national security?" How exactly is Iraq a threat? To the rest of the world, the assertion is ridiculous. To the Muslim world, America is an invader seeking to control Iraqi oil resources. Recent polls show that most Iraqis believe that the Americans have no intention of ever leaving Iraq. A sobering 77% of Sunnis and 37% of all Iraqis believe that attacks on American occupation forces are legitimate. To the non-Muslim world, the occupation of iraq is viewed as an anti-democratic and imperialist attempt to control and manipulate an Arab state in order to further an agenda of controling the Middle East region through force. They raise legitimate questions as to why, if the true agenda is to stabilize Iraq under a government of its own people's choosing, the matter of security has not been turned over to a United nations mission and forces on a multinational basis. There appears to be no good answer except that there is no legitimate basis for the US mission and the other nations do not want to be responsible for fixing a mess that George Bush created.

Now the ridiculous situation that the US is in as a result of the Bush deception leading to invasion of Iraq has become absurd as the cost of the "war" has risen to nearly One Half Trillion dollars. [Last GAO guesstimate was $440 Trillion, with a minimum of an additional $50B in next fiscal year.]