The "War" in Iraq took a new turn for the absurd this week. Having added 20,000 additional troops last summer to quell the violence, the Senior Commander in Iraq, General Petraeus, is this week saying that troop withdrawals will have to be delayed indefinitely to maintain the newfound fragile peace. Let's get this straight...Can't leave when things are bad, can't leave when things are good...
This war is right out of the playbook for a Great Power in decline. It's a grand military mis-adventure based on false pretense and false pride (hubris).
John McCain, who has based his entire Presidential campaign largely on his support for the war, has recently said that we could be there for 100 years. Up until now, the war has already cost $500 billion and is running at around $100 billion per year. Someone should get McCain a calculator, because 100 Billion x 100 years is an additional $10 trillion dollars. Meanwhile, McCain should wake up to the fact that poll support for Bush and the war are in a straight line race for single digits. On a related note, has someone told the Chinese how much money this war is going to cost them? Because we sure don't have the money. Tell them we MIGHT even pay them back - with trees we cut into timber, from which we make stacks of paper that we print numbers on, and call "money".
To summarize accomplishments to date:
1) Started the war on the false pretense that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction
2) Drove the country $500 billion FURTHER into debt with untold future liability ($10 trillion according to McCain, above)
3) Strengthened Al Qaeda and gave them a new base of operations and many willing new recruits
4) Diverted attention from the Iranians who ARE in fact building a weapon of mass destruction
5) Destituted over 2 million Iraqi citizens, who live in squalid refugee camps throughout the Arab world - many of whom will be eager future Al Qaeda recruits
6) Found and captured The Bad Guy (Saddam Hussein) and then hanged him for crimes he committed back when he was receiving military and financial support from the U.S. - hmm...who knew what, when...?
7) Foisted the entire human cost of this war onto a small group of Americans - in lieu of a draft, we just recycle ("stop loss") the same people back into combat over and over again. Sounds fair to me...
It's a meat grinder with no way out, but nobody really gives a damn, because "hey, look who's on American Idol this week..."
"Like the war private? No? Too bad, roll those dice one more time and pray you don't come up snake eyes...". "Lost an arm, leg, eye, wife/life?" "Here's $20,000, now quit your bitching..."
Meanwhile, it's estimated that thousands of American soldiers have suffered PERMANENT brain injury from IED (Improvised Explosive Device) explosions. This brain damage typically leads to loss of memory, inability to concentrate and difficulty holding down a job. These soldiers are the homeless of the near future - thousands of brain-fucked Rambos walking around, pissed off and disoriented, no future prospects, but having an in-depth knowledge of how to operate automatic weapons. Great scenario...
8) Stranded tens of millions of working poor and children in this country without healthcare, because we "couldn't afford it".
Time to buy just an ounce of honesty and cut the losses.
