In for a penny, in for a pound. What the heck-the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already soaked up $808 billion, so why quarrel about the Bush administration’s request this week for $50 billion more in supplementary spending? That’s on top of the $141 billion in supplementary spending already added to the 2008 budget for the Iraq disaster.
Understand that “supplementary” means, in this case, an allocation of funds beyond the $750 billion that U.S. taxpayers spend each year on the regular defense budget. And that’s a conservative estimate made by former Assistant Secretary of Defense Philip Coyle in an interview on Truthdig. As Coyle points out, this is money spent largely without significant oversight, particularly during the years after the 9/11 trauma heightened the already irrational evaluation of our national security needs.
The full extent of this irrationality can be seen in the response of Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, to the administration’s latest funding request. This leader of the loyal opposition rises, not to criticize Caesar, but to one-up him. The panic button that Bush is using this time is the need for more mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles, fortified troop carriers that cost a million bucks a piece but evidently provide better protection against roadside bombs. Bush wants to spend about a quarter of the new money on the rapid production of MRAPs-a mere $12 billion. But that’s not good enough for Biden, who introduced legislation to increase spending on MRAPs by $23.6 billion, arguing, “We have no higher obligation than to protect those we send to the front lines.”
Actually, Senator, you do have a higher obligation: to think through the need for this mission before you vote to put troops in harm’s way, as you failed to do when you voted to authorize the Iraq war. Also, before you rush to create new bottlenecks in the assembly line of the military-industrial complex, producing vehicles that would not be needed if we got out, you might heighten your efforts to force an end to this war. Spending $23.6 billion on fortified vehicles that will take years to produce is an admission that you are planning a long-term occupation of a hostile population in Iraq, and possibly Iran. Recall that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was able to tour France and Germany in an open-air jeep, waving at friendly crowds, to fully comprehend the different reception Bush gets in what he still calls “liberated” Iraq.
The MRAPs are needed only as a weapon of choice for an occupying army in a country that strongly resists foreigners. If the Iraqis had greeted us as liberators, as Biden and other hawks anticipated, then they would be throwing flowers at our troop carriers rather than being complicit in planting the bombs that destroy them. Fortified vehicles only further separate the occupier from the population, which will remain fully vulnerable to attack. The emphasis on the protection of the foreigner-the Green Zone model-is a failed tactic of colonizers that alienates the local populace.
The locals are alienated enough. In a recent BBC/ABC poll, a whopping 80 percent of Iraqis said that the U.S. and other coalition forces have done “quite a bad job” (32 percent) or a “very bad job” (48 percent) in carrying out their responsibilities in Iraq, and that includes the supposedly happy Kurds. The same poll found that 72 percent feel the presence of American forces in Iraq is making security in the country worse, and 57 percent said it is “acceptable” to attack the U.S.-led forces.
This is not a problem that more armor on vehicles can fix, although those vehicles should have been securely armored from the start if the goal was to occupy an oil-rich country with a fierce tradition of opposing foreigners looking to control that resource. (Clearly, the U.S. government could have footed the bill by cutting any one of the costly and obsolete Cold War weapons systems.) Nor is it an issue that can be solved by splitting Iraq into three religious and ethnic enclaves-Biden’s other brilliant proposal from last week.
Fortunately, the vast majority of Iraqis, whom Biden did not bother to consult, rejected that prescription for ethnic cleansing and endless civil war. Fully 98 percent of Iraqis told BBC/ABC pollsters that dividing their country along sectarian lines would be bad for Iraq, and 65 percent said that a quick U.S. withdrawal would not make civil war more likely. But what do they know? They’re just Iraqis.
Robert Scheer is editor of Truthdig.com and a regular columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle.
© 2007 TruthDig.com
Funny how the bitch and moan about getting money for HEALTH CARE FOR CHILDREN but money for war??????
they just gotta have it.
I say we dont give them another dime for war!
I want us out of Iraq as quickly as possible as much as anyone else. The reality is though that there is little chance of us leaving before Bush leaves office, and even then it would probably take another year to withdraw even if the new president started immediately upon taking office. Another long shot that probably won’t happen.
As a former combat veteran myself I fully support giving our troops whatever will lessen their chances of being killed or seriously injured in the meantime until we can get out of this misbegotten disaster that Bush and the Neocons have visited on us. And in reality, with the improved combat medical care and the larger ratio of wounded to dead it will even be cost effective when you consider the cost of providing medical care and support to those who are seriously wounded and end up permanently disabled.
Lobo Gris
Probably all of us at CD say don’t give them another penny for war, but of course what we say would only matter if we lived in something approaching a representative democracy, which we don’t, as of yet. Most Americans are beginning to figure that out, though I think few understand that if we did somehow elect politicians to carry out our wishes that such people would be in great danger of being removed or killed, particularly those in the position of president. And if we elected a Congress to carry out our wishes, they would most likely be made irrelevant one way or another.
The US is, and has been for some time, a fascist dictatorship where people have had the illusion that elections matter and that they had a say, because that way there would be more productive workers and fewer protestors and other malcontents. Those efforts have been successful to the extent that the people have been brainwashed (Chomsky’s manufactured consent) to believe in what their corporate masters wanted them to believe in. When the brainwashing falls short there is unrest as the population perceives a disconnect between their wishes and what happens politically. And the brainwashing appears to be falling short today, particularly because of the not yet controlled Internet, and so it might become interesting in the years ahead, especially if the Internet survives in its current form.
Anyone who can say the US is “a fascist dictatorship” has no idea what a fascist dictatorship is like.
The US is a liberal corporate democracy with a lazy public that doesn’t bother to inform, organize and mobilize itself using the many tools at its disposal.
Elections decide which people hold office but our elections don’t bring fundamental change because we’re too lazy to do our part in choosing the party nominees (challenging bad ones and supporting good ones in the primary elections) and educating and mobilizing our neighbors. Half of us don’t even bother to vote!
Content to get our news and entertainment from corporate sources, and delegate our politics to paid professionals, we get the government we deserve (it’s the rest of the world that doesn’t deserve our government).
Biden has been in the Senate for a while. The question is why? Take a glance at his record: He’s got a big mouth, he’s defending Anita Hill, preventing you from taking dangerous drugs, legislation against domestic violence and kissing babies. But, mostly he’s a check writer to Death Inc. He’s part of the problem, rotting in the Senate for years, eyes on fire after 9/11.
Let’s send this mobster home in 2009, Delaware. Enjoy your “tax free” shoreline, no more flag draped coffins flying into Biden’s Dover.
Biden comes from Delaware, home of Dow Chemical Co., makers of napalm used to kill thousands of Vietnamese & destroy their country. BTW, they do really nice puff ads in the New Yorker magazine. How nice.
Just how much money does Biden get from Dow?
MRAP=rolling maginot line.
The MRAPs may have more long-term utility than Mr. Scheer suggests.
For example, if the elections in 2008 are cancelled by Mr. Bush in the wake of another major terrorist attack, he may need all the MRAPs he can find to enforce the occupation of California and New York.
It really isn’t fair to single out Mr. Biden for expressing the usual Democratic death-wish in his own way. In spite of the occasional embarrassing headline from Iraq, Biden is still on exactly the same page as his constituency of insatiable consumers.
Nader2000,
Our fascist dictatorship (beginning in Reagan’s first term, though there were certainly fascist elements in the US political system prior to that) has a soft edge at home, though certainly a hard one abroad. A soft edge has worked because of what Chomsky called “manufactured consent” — the majority of Americans were convinced by the corporate elites that X was the right thing to do and voted for politicians that advocated X, when the corporate elites expected X to benefit them and could not care less what effect it would have on the rest (and the majority of the public really had no clue), though they expected that through imperialistic practices enough wealth could be accumulated to keep the majority satisfied. And a soft edge is generally going to be preferred at home as it produces a compliant and productive populace.
The question always was whether the soft edge would turn hard when the corporate elites were no longer capable of brainwashing the public. Certainly Bush has hardened the edge, and we may find just how hard that edge can become if the Internet and other sources of diverse input continue to grow and enlighten the public.
If the US were a society where democratic principles and institutions were taken seriously, there would be educational requirements at the secondary level with regard to philosophy in general and political philosophy in particular. That is not the case.
American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
demagogue [(dem-uh-gog, dem-uh-gawg)]
A politician who seeks to win and hold office by appeals to mass prejudice. Demagogues often use lies and distortion. (See Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.)
Biden is just another no-chance idiot. Time for him to go!
Joe Biden (pronounced:BY-DIN) really loves the American Empire (pronounced: MERKIN EM-PAH) but simply desires to stomp the Iraqis (pronounced: EYE-RACK-EEZ) in a softer manner. How does this make him different from George Wanker Bush? (pronounced: JORJ WANKER BOOSH).
Nader2000 September 26th, 2007 1:28 pm
“Anyone who can say the US is “a fascist dictatorship” has no idea what a fascist dictatorship is like.”#$#%$^#
Anyone who makes a comment like that doesn’t know what a “Militerised Corporatised Fascist Kleptocracy” IS LIKE!!!!!!!! Because that is what America has morphed into with or without the approval of the lazy public….
Delaware is home to Dupont, but last I knew, Dow chemical was originally headquartered in Midland, Mich.
At least none of that $200 billion is secretly earmarked for “Operation Iranian Nightmare” which, whew, finally was totally solved by all that talking down at the U.N. this week.
Next mission: liberty for all lifeforms on all planets in all of the known and unknown universe and also parallel dimensions.
Please report all unpatiotic activity by americans to the FBI, CIA, Pentagon, Secret Service, any other secret services you know about. c.c. to world court, which we don’t subsribe to, “to protect our servicemen” (and those higher up on the food chain)
Seriously, think about this comment.!!! I assume that vastly more people comprehend the meaning of the word, here; than in most other forums, anywhere!? Please post any other comments thoughts or suggestions anywhere else but here and Huff Post etc.
Serious adult moral thoughtful rational patriotic comments are not needed here — just *everywhere else*
Get an anonymous eMail account and don’t use your real name. Letting MSM know who you really are, isn’t going to benefit anyone. Of course the CIA FBI etc already know who you are.
——————————Just for kicks: If you should have any republican “friends” you might remind them that J E Hoover was a cross-dressing homosexual. (It would be more important to remind them he was an extortionist; but let’s not make this too difficult an exercise for them.)
Then, carefully watch the strange blank stare that develops on their face. (Though extemely common, the details of this phenomenon, have not been adequately described.) Then brace yourself and watch their brain shift into irrationality overdrive. Anyway, it’s probably a good exercise for them to maintain their “normal” brain function.
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Soylent Green is the future. With the Bush wholly owned subsidiary of Predatory Capiatalists International; it just happens faster.
RIP The “American Dream”
The American Delusion is alive and well.
The American Dream redefined as SUVs and McMansions is pre-morbidly termial; but don’t let such details worry you too much ???
$750 billion annual defence spending
+ $200 billion annually in supplementary spending for the Iraq war
= $1 trillion (approx)
Did I do my sums right? Or did I get it wrong somewhere.
Is almost two thirds of all the world’s military spending done by the USA?
OMG! It is a wonder that you have any money left to spend it on hospitals and education!
Every once in a while Biden goes off the reservation and says something logical and gives a glimmer of hope.
Then he spends months talking stupid. You can see the corporate arm up his back working the mouth. He smiles a lot sometimes. He must like the arm up the ass.
I think we are a “fascist dictatorship”, only we let other people suffer from the dictates of our fearless leaders. It’s a nice $&*+ pie they serve us, with a cherry on top! And we llllllllllove it!
The Elephants and the Donkeys are sending everything we value down the crapper!
One thing that Ghandi had going for him in India was a lot of desperate people looking for a way out. Americans keep themselves from realizing the $&*+hole they’re in by using their plastic, watching TV, and using drugs, and so can’t rise to that level. We’ll all be in deep $&*+ and gagging on it before we stop this $&*+!
“liberty for all lifeforms on all planets in all of the known and unknown universe and also parallel dimensions…..”
frank1569, i think i love you.
i recall that as a prayer….where is it from?
Nader 2000: I believe that if you actually do a little research, you will likely discover that the previous 2 national “elections” were nothing of the sort. Mr. Bush was appointed as President in 2000 by the Supreme Court (albeit only after the Republican attempts to criminally fix the election in several states failed - e.g., Fla.), and in 2004, there was so much crap going on with computerized voting machines, as well as outright voter tampering (e.g., in Ohio). If most Americans actually thought the elections were not corrupted, as is most everything else in our corporate/government, likely more people would get more involved and vote in primaries and general elections. Until the election apparatus is repaired, which won’t happen because the Dem and Rep incumbents and the corporate shills that paid for them to get into office could not care less about reform as long as they are on the gravy train, we are screwed. Maybe the only thing we’ll be able to do in 2008 elections is to vote every Rep & Dem incumbent out of office and vote in every 3rd party, independent candidate on every ballot in every town. But, I’m relly thinking Georgie & Dickie will be arranging another “terrorist” attack and the elections will be cancelled.
obscene…. this is an obscenity…. usa karmic load has tipped the scales against us… the payback will be brutal
Define Obscene? the war criminals we’ll have to choose from in the next election.
My wife mentioned the other day to me, “Doesn’t Hillary have courage to stand up there with all those women?” My wife, a woman with an advanced degree from Duke, a prefession job believes that Hillary has courage. Then she put her IPOD back on and back to her yoga with this look of “everything is wonderful.” …but Hillary has courage: to send people to war.
That’s what we’re up against folks. This is why I have been told I have to start looking at my second illegal deployment to Iraq. I think she’ll be glad I am gone. Why upset her beautifl little mind with things like that and me.
oh….perhaps I’ll get Tazed now.
A soldier life.
A few pundits are finding it very fashionable these days to criticize Senator Joe Biden’s Iraq federalism plan and his steadfast support of sending MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) to our soldiers in Iraq while drawing the troop level down. Sometimes, the criticism is sensibly constructive. Others are simply political hatchet jobs by journalists who want to rub up to opposing candidates they think will win so they can get exclusive access. It’s hard to tell which one the most recent op-ed by Robert Scheer is. I have tremendous respect for Robert Scheer, but his latest op-ed “Biden One-ups Bush” was surprisingly disappointing and made the politically astute wince at the absurdities splattered throughout the op-ed.
One excerpt I think is misguided:
“Actually, Senator, you do have a higher obligation: to think through the need for this mission before you vote to put troops in harm’s way…”
I think someone needs to point out a crucial fact: our soldiers are ALREADY there- Biden’s NOT putting more soldiers in Iraq. Not funding their protection means more of those soldiers will die- and I highly doubt that Mr. Scheer wants more of our soldiers to die. Simply stripping our soldiers of their protection would mean that when our soldiers finally DO get home, they’d be dead while we could have brought home those same soldiers ALIVE. Biden has stated on numerous occasions that we need to bring our soldiers home as earliest as possible- he even said that before most of the Democratic leadership thought it was a good idea. Maybe he should have made his wish more explicit- to bring home our men and women ALIVE.
“Fortunately, the vast majority of Iraqis, whom Biden did not bother to consult, rejected that prescription for ethnic cleansing and endless civil war… dividing their country along sectarian lines would be bad for Iraq…”
This is another excerpt that I find glaringly false. The fighting in Iraq IS “ethnic cleansing” AND “civil war”. The chaos now going on in Iraq is mainly Shia killing Sunni, Kurds killing Shia, etc. They will NEVER get along- at least in the near future. ALSO, Iraq is ALREADY divided up into regional zones, and trespassers from the different regions are slaughtered (the ones not in their ‘ethnic regions’ are also being slaughtered); this is the civil war we’ve been hearing about. The civil war Mr. Scheer doesn’t seem to think is happening is causing the majority of the deaths he seems to be worried about. Iraq is already “partitioned” and consumed by “ethnic cleansing” and “civil war”.
By the way, I suggest that the plan’s detractors look up the definitive distinction between FEDERALISM and PARTITION if you want to criticize Biden’s plan more effectively. I especially recommend that anyone with an interest in what the Iraqis ACTUALLY WANT look into the work of Bakar Humam Hammoudi, the Iraqi Constitution committee chairman, Fouad Massoum, the chair of the Kurdish delegation and Adnan al-Janabi, chair of the Sunni delegation. Also examine the efforts of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of Iraq’s largest political party, Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) and look at the United Iraqi Alliance, which got 4.08 million out of 8 million (48.1%) votes in 2005. I urge everyone to examine their negotiations between Iraqi Shia, Sunni and Kurd AND look at their own consensus: they WANT FEDERALISM. Joe Biden is making the U.S. listen to that IRAQI consensus. He wants IRAQ to be for IRAQIS.
Mowaffak al-Rubaie, who is Iraq’s Shia National Security Advisor, and was nominated by the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA; UIA received the most votes in 2005) and later democratically elected, has praised Biden’s plan.
I also suggest critics who worry about federalism’s effects on the Sunni minority look at the advocacy efforts of Tareq al Hashemi, the head of the Islamic Party of Iraq (IPI), which is a widely-popular Sunni political party. He also is a major participant within the Iraqi consensus that Iraq should have federalism.
Biden simply wants to give the Iraqis what they themselves want: their own regions officially recognized AND legalized (they already have de facto regions) and thereby their territorial integrity/autonomy respected. If this is done, the ethnic-based civil war WILL END, because the regions will largely be autonomous and no one would even WANT to cross into the different regions because they WANT their own INDEPENDENT regions.
When will Americans wake up and realize the fact that they have to let Iraq govern themselves according to THEIR own wishes? When will they realize that they can no longer tell Iraq or Iraqis how to live their lives? This also applies to Scheer’s ilk: when will these moralistic polemicists realize they cannot mindlessly apply their definition of justice and right and wrong everywhere- even as brazenly to the indignation of historical fact?
Biden got the call- it seems that Mr. Scheer did not.