December 22, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

MONEY FOR WAR AND NOTHING ELSE

How long have we heard about how "fiscally conservative" conservatives are? Any money that would be spent on social programs is too expensive, according to right-wingers, but they have no problem with money for war. George W. Bush's unnecessary war in Iraq is bleeding the treasury dry. But I guess, according to right-wingers, that's perfectly fiscally sound. This commentary is at www.first-draft.com:

Overall, the war in Iraq has cost about $350 billion. Combined with the conflict in Afghanistan and operations against terrorism elsewhere, the cost has topped $500 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

Keep this story in mind when Republicans tell you any and all proposed health care reforms will be too expensive.

Keep this story in mind when Republicans tell you it's useless to keep "throwing money" at failing public schools.

Keep this story in mind when Republicans talk about how hospitals can't afford to treat the uninsured, or immigrants, or children of immigrants, or the poor, and should be allowed to turn patients away because there's just not enough money, apparently, to go around in this country anymore.

Keep this story in mind when you read about the homeless, as you assuredly will, this being the season when local news does their one segment on homelessness, and people grumble about supporting the poor.

ZUGSWANG

"Zugswang" is a chess term that means that every possible move results in a worse position. Maybe George W. Bush should replace "Mission Accomplished" banners with a "Zugswang" banner. Bush and his neocons have created a mess in Iraq that may not be repairable. This article by ExecBranch4Dummies is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Now that conservatives and even neo-conservatives are scattering like rats when it comes to Iraq policy, it's interesting to see Kristol stick to his man Bush while admitting that nothing has gone as well as we had been told it would go. Kristol is not an idiot; he forms complete sentences and does not scream and whine when cornered usually, though he did a little Poor Pitiful Me act last night when Jon Stewart slapped him silly.

Here is the important part of the neocon true believer mentality. We CAN'T lose in Iraq. It CAN'T happen, because it means a terrible loss of American prestige and influence, and more to the point for them, it leaves the architects of this war open to criminal charges.

So we will waste billions of dollars, hundreds (or thousands) of more American lives and thousands (or tens of thousands) of more Iraqi lives trying to fix an unfixable mess. At least in Vietnam, when things got this bad we were actually having negotiations, but that's out of the question in Bush World.