A Scandal and a Shame (BR)

I'm not one to advocate for required reading, but a piece in today's New York Times comes close. Every American should be incensed, outraged, furious, (more synonyms) at the outright betrayal of our fighting men in Iraq and squandering of our tax dollars. We were promised an "affordable endeavor" that would "not require sustained aid". We were told Iraqi oil would pay for our adventure. Andrew Natsios, director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), promised - a week before "major hostilities ended" and our mission was "accomplished" - that the total of US taxpayer contributions to reconstruction would be a paltry $1.7 billion. These people should all be arrested and put on public trial.

DID YOU KNOW? Without much more fanfare than a 3"x3" story on page 17 of your local newspaper, Congress last week passed a supplemental spending bill for operations in Iraq to the tune of $81 billion, pushing the total cost of the war past $300 billion. Attention Conservatives: they will continue to shovel this "limited government" idiocy only as long as you continue to swallow. CNN story

DID YOU KNOW? Our troops are still fighting an insurgency in Iraq with inadequate and obsolete armor, in many cases forced to improvise vehicle protection out of scrap metal while holding it in place with bare hands. Read first-hand accounts from our undersupported marines here, thanks to the New York Times.

Support our troops? Pfffft. Every once in a while, the adminstration offers us a stark and honest view of what they really think of our armed forces. If the Bush administration - now stacked, by the way, exclusively with ex-draft dodgers and career politicans/social architects and virtually no one with significant military experience under his belt - takes such a withering view of the US soldier, they should all step aside and let someone with respect for the uniform and fitness for command lead the way.

Where's all this money going?