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The amount of good that could be done with the money the US is wasting on this war is sickening.
After all that came down on their heads in September, the Bush administration and congressional Republicans must be wondering if the situation can possibly get worse.
Sure it can. Chickens tend to come home to roost all at once.
As Republican congressional leaders scrambled to do damage control and distance themselves from any responsibility from the fallout that Rep. Mark Foley left in his wake, President Bush stumped out West praising the GOP stalwarts and attacking the Democrats as weak on national security.
Please.
On the same day that eight American soldiers were killed in Baghdad - the worst one-day casualty toll in more than a year - as they pursued the plan to make Iraq's blood-drenched center of gravity safer and calmer.
By shifting American troops out of their well-protected bases elsewhere in the country and giving them a job that the Iraqis and their government clearly cannot do for themselves we have only given the murderers new and tempting targets.
The effort has been greeted with record-high attacks with roadside bombs and snipers at the more vulnerable American targets, and the sectarian slaughter only grows worse.
Those on the ground can be forgiven for thinking that the situation in Iraq is unraveling at a frightening pace.
At the White House, the president's political mastermind Karl Rove was doing his own scrambling to counter the revelations of former trusted court stenographer Bob Woodward.
Rove got his October surprise
Addressing Woodward's charge that the administration was in a state of denial of the reality on the ground in Iraq, White House spokesman Tony Snow declared: "We deny that."
To the president's oft-repeated mantra that he'd provide any and all reinforcements requested by his ground commanders in Iraq, one of those former commanders, Maj. Gen. John Batiste, replied: Not really. Batiste said that when he commanded the 1st Infantry Division, he begged for more troops and got none.
Maybe that is one of the reasons he retired rather than get another star and go back to Iraq
But to those experts who say we must reinforce the troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan, consider that the top Army leaders have been telling anyone who'll listen that they may not even be able to meet current troop levels next year without extraordinary help from the Army Reserve and Army National Guard.
Meanwhile, thousands of blown up and worn out Army tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees are backed up at Army repair depots, and Army leaders say they can't be fixed unless Congress provides $17 billion.
In order to man the current 147,000 American troop level in Iraq, the Army has been forced to cannibalize units rotating home for much needed rest, leaving the United States with only two or three brigades, fewer than 10,000 soldiers, barely capable of responding to a crisis anywhere else in the world.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, traveling in Central America, brushed off a growing chorus of calls for his resignation or dismissal, his rose-colored spectacles firmly affixed to his nose. He told a conference of Latin American defense ministers that what's needed in this world to accomplish anything are coalitions of nations. Strange advice coming from the man who dissed our Old European allies on the eve of the invasion of Iraq.
Meantime, the do-nothing-good Congress left town at a high lope to get out on the campaign trail and try to save their jobs and the Republican grip on the levers of power.
Before leaving, however, congressional Republicans did roll over a $20 million appropriation to finance a huge Iraq victory celebration in the nation's capital. They had voted the money for 2006 but there was, alas, no victory to celebrate this year. Ever hopeful, they made sure that the funds would be available in 2007.
They can't find enough money to fix all the broken war equipment or even to finance fully the $2 billion a week that the war is costing taxpayers, but the money will be there for the triumphal parades and fireworks displays when Johnny comes marching home.
One can only wonder what they've been smoking inside the Beltway. One can only marvel at the thought that any of those clowns has a chance at being re-elected when the polls before the Foley scandal put voter trust in Congress near the 20 percent mark.
Yep its time to through the BUMS OUT
They're lucky that "None of the Above" isn't one of the choices on ballots in November.
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwash...y/15678460.htm
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The amount of good that could be done with the money the US is wasting on this war is sickening.
If we had spent an equivalent amount on what really matters in the war on terrorism, the war of ideas, Al Qaeda couldn't compete.
As it is we pay for the platform, Iraq, from which they can draw unlimited propaganda victories.
The amount of good that could be done with the money the U.S. is wasting on en lement programs is what's sickening.
Yet your willing to sacrifice our blood and booty for complete strangers..... under guise of self defense. Nice to know you care more about Iraqis than you do your own countrymen.
GGA, how do you catch flies. Put the honey out and
they will come. How are we getting the terrorist. Iraq
is our honey. We baited, they came. swat!
Will things get worst, bet your bottom dollar, mid-terms
are just down the road and the dimm-o-craps have a
whole line of "scandals" all ready to be sprung.
Except for one little problem. They love the 's
and everyone knows they really don't give a damn
about the "young folks" in the page system.
Mr. Studd got a standing ovation for HAVING sex with
a young page, issuing a public statement about it
and telling everyone to go to , he wasn't going
anywhere, and didn't until he retired from politics.
They stood by while Barney Frank's lover run a
house out of Barney's apartment. Naw, they have
made a whole lot of folks mad for trying their little
trick and and shouting for joy because of the polls,
but we shall see. We shall see.
Just standby, a new scandal will emerge next week and
the week after and another after that until election
time. All you Bush haters will be in your glory, until
the day after the election and then well..............hanging chad time again, I suspect, except
it will be those blasted electronic voting machines
were fixed.
ray, ray, ray..I have heard your argument many times over the past few days but the issue is very simple. a congressman sexually harrased a page..
the GOP spin in trying to make this a gay issue is a strecth..
I have heard many times over the 'studd' comparison (I,m glad republicans don't use talking points) but the problem with that is it happened 23 yrs ago? I have not bothered to research this but can you point out how many dems are still around that served in that Congress? This argument to the core seems to be that the Democrats as a whole condoned studd's actions? If your proof is that broad of a blanket statement then wouldn't it make your case weak that today's Democrats are hypocrites?? Considering the Democratic party has evolved?
in regards to your silly Iraq justification..that's not why went to war in Iraq. it became justification #4 after those stockpiles were never found
I agree. Too bad your boy in office doesn't.
This is not a sarcastic or glib request: I would like to know which government programs you consider en lement programs.
Bush's legacy IS en lement programs.
You are 100% correct Yoni, it's sickening, literally.
Perhaps its the estimated ~1 trillion dollars in future medicare/medicade/disability costs we will all have to pay to care for the maimed vets from his war?
While I agree that there is still some fat in en lement programs, how about we stop subsidizing, with tax-payer money, corporations that are reporting record profits first.
......screwed up my reply.....and don't have time to correct the thing.
So, roughly 13% of the US population, or about 40mil people, are below the official poverty line. How much has been spent on the war? $300bil? That $300bil could have been used to lift the incomes of those 40mil people by $7500 each, not that I'm suggesting that is how you deal with poverty, just illustrating how much money we're talking about.
About 1.5bil people in the world live without safe drinking water and suffer from terrible diseases. Those people could be given access to safe drinking water for about $50bil, or 1/6 of the cost of the Iraq war thus far!
Wonderful world we live in, ain't it? (Actually, the world you and I live in is wonderful, but we are the very lucky minority)
what would giving money away do? they would blow it on plasma tvs, hookers and all those other things that many katrina victims bought with their free money
haha.. i am serious.. boob jobs...all sorts of were bought with those fema cards...
If republicans keep control of congress things will get much, much worse.
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