Three Card Monte

The United States under George W. Bush has as its great foreign policy goal the spread of freedom and democracy to the four corners of the globe. Since we found none of the weapons of mass destruction that were the reason for overthrowing the regime in Baghdad, the spread of democracy has become the ex post facto rationale for the Iraq War while the United Nations resolutions that we unilaterally enforced to save that world body turned out not to have been a big deal after all.

The cost of the Iraq War alone now exceeds $200 billion and will certainly more than double before we can walk away. As we approach the $10,000.00 spending mark for every man woman and child in Iraq to prosecute the war and enforce the peace, it is clear that this is a financially disastrous as well as a debilitating military quagmire in which we are caught.

This says nothing about the hidden and deferred costs of the war such as restocking arms and armaments used up in the desert sand, the cost of veterans’ compensation and hospitalization for our dead and broken bodies, the cost of expanding the army to its newly increased quota, the additional cost of recruiting as bonuses have to double and triple and as more recruiters must be assigned.

The cost of the War is also degrading our other armed forces and home defenses as we put off the purchase of new weapons systems, retire the Navy carrier USS John F. Kennedy, and as we fail to find the money to adequately protect our major ports and cities.

Naturally, as the cost of the war is kept off budget, the deficit grows accordingly and our dependence on countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan to fund it grows each day.

Even if a few of President Bush’s ideas for Social Security were found by the Congress to have merit, there is no way these reforms can be implemented in any but a token manner as the amount of debt that would have to be taken on by the nation is simply too onerous.

Our budget and trade deficits are burgeoning even as the incomes of ordinary Americans stagnate while our plutocrats grow richer and more callous. But all of our major present problems can be traced to the Iraq War.

The president is a master of three card monte in which he is the supreme tosser. His aids; the ropers, Cheney, Rice and a host of neocons continue to draw marks in. But as more and more citizens see through the game, it always gets back to the same queen, Iraq, which he hides with every trick at his disposal.

Even as administration apologists scream that liberal media is undercutting them, they stock the press with ringers and ropers – using tax money in many cases. But every day more voters see that there is no real plan for anything except getting through the day to maintain power.

We’ve been badly used by these neoconservative incompetents.

Blog on!

Wild Bill