“It is time to take stock, hold people accountable and change course.” - Ft. Worth (Texas) Star Telegram, Sunday 10/30/05
Less than a week before the March, 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the Fort Worth, Texas Star Telegram warned:
An invasion would produce “a theocratic leadership made up of radical Muslim fundamentalists.”;
The cost of the war and aftermath would be prohibitive;
There was no indication in Iraq of “resumed nuclear activities”;
The US had not made a convincing case that Iraq posed a clear and immediate threat and that is was hard to understand the urgency of using military force.”;
And, the harsh realities today:
Iraq now seems destined to be yet another fundamentalist Muslim government, ultimately hostile to US interests (and who will blame them after the insanity of this war?);
Casualties are now over 2,000 American dead, over 15,000 wounded, and VA projections that over 100,000 will ultimately seek medical help as a result of this war;
Costs of the over two and a half year war (and still counting) and restructuring Iraq are now projected to well surpass $400 billion, with no end in sight - in spite of Donald Rumsfeld’s dismissive claims before the war that it would be over in six months and would cost less than $50 billion;
The US national debt now tops $8 TRILLION;
Almost every claim justifying the war has turned out to be false, and justifications are now being widely viewed as actual administration deceptions (i.e., "lies" - they've pretty much given up even the pretense of the "WMD's);
US allies in the war - the “Coalition of the Willing” became the “Multi-national Force” as participants withdrew in wholesale lots, and is now moving rapidly towards “All bailed Out”;
US Army FY 2005 recruiting goals were missed by over 8%, the first full year deficit since 1999, and the largest shortfall in 26 years;
Half the US troops now in Iraq are reservists - the highest proportion ever in history;
Predictably, this administration will become a Case Study in the future on “HOW NOT TO RUN A NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION”. It is hard to understand how anyone could do a worse job, even deliberately!
And yet millions of acerebral marching morons, Old Glory pins obscenely adorning their lapels, continue to raise their right arms in "Sieg-Heil" reverence to the regime.
ReplyDeleteOf course it will all come collapsing down upon them in very short order, whether before or after the 2008 elections (don't expect whoever succeeds Bush and Company to be significantly diffferent; it is neoconservative ideology, not partisan political tenets, that govern the nation).
It pains me to adopt this attitude, but I've come to believe that America as a whole deserves the Bu'ushist Regime, a small fraction of the population (current company included) excepted. Sad that the collapse of the New Rome will take so many innocents along with it.