Iraq

It's been a while since I posted anything here. So much has been happening that I don't have much time to spend at the computer. Then when I do, there's too much to write about. It's the same way today. So I'll just bite off a small chunk and chew on it a while, and save the rest for later.

Much news about Iraq over the past few days. 60 Minutes had a report on corruption in the new Iraqi government. The Bush administration gave 'em $1.2 billion to buy equipment for the military. They spent $400 million on junk and siphoned $800 million to private bank accounts in Europe and elsewhere. CBS's intrepid reporter found one of the Iraqi officials living high on the hog in Paris. Yeah, that's just the sort of visionary leadership the world needs, huh? And that's YOUR tax dollars at work. We can't fund Katrina repairs, we can't fund schools, we can't fund health care for National Guard members mobilized for duty in Iraq, but Bush has no problem wasting $1.2 BILLION on his Iraq pipedream!

Meanwhile, George has been closeted with senior military officials. They're not using the term "stay the course" anymore ... seems they finally realized that the "dead-enders" who are "on their last legs" (remember those Cheneyisms?) have dragged Iraq into a full-blown civil war. (Okay, so Busy isn't acknowledging what the rest of the world knows, that it's already a full-blown civil war ... that would be bad for politics, what with the mid-term elections only two weeks away). Anyway, now Bush is starting to talk about "benchmarks" and turnover to the Iraqi government.

About time, I say. I've long felt that the two alternatives of the right and left were dead wrong. Bush wanted a blank check (literally) to maintain a policy that was obviously failing. The Democrats wanted a definitive pull-out date. Neither answered the real question, which is how to get Iraq to a stage where it can limp along on its own. Now they're finally getting to the right questions that they should've been debating a year ago, but it's probably too late. The questions have changed now. Iraq has a corrupt and incompetent government, a civil war raging between Shi'ites and Sunnis (and now beween Shi'ite and Shi'ite), no economy to speak of, and a growing influence from Iranian-style fundamentalism.

So George Bush has removed a thug from power and turned a repressed-but-functioning country into a cesspool. Way to go, George!