Post by Moses on Jan 26, 2005 19:57:15 GMT -5
Editorial: Mounting War Bill
27 January 2005 —<br> <br>
THOUGH Iraqis are paying the highest price by far for George Bush’s invasion of their country, the United States is making its own significant contribution in both blood and coin. Yesterday’s crash of a US Marine helicopter near the Jordanian border claiming 31 lives was the largest single casualty figure in Iraq. Even as detailed news of this latest loss broke, the administration in Washington was announcing the need for at least an extra $80 billion in funding, largely to pursue US policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. This amount will propel war spending since 9/11 to $300 billion.
Is the world really $300 billion safer or are all those dollars simply being hurled by the fistful onto the blaze that Bush ignited in Iraq? Couldn’t a good part of so vast a sum of money have been better used addressing injustice, despair and poverty, the very things on which terrorism feeds so hungrily? We shall of course never know. Yet it ought to give pause for thought that this very week, the world’s richest man, Microsoft boss Bill Gates, has pledged $750 million of his own money to fund a global campaign of immunization against childhood diseases. He has pointed out that his contribution dwarves the combined total already offered by America and Europe.
The Pentagon, whose 2005 budget this year — not including the extra money — is $400 billion, says that part of the cash is earmarked for the training and provision of equipment to Iraqi and Afghani forces to whom Washington intends to hand over when it is deemed that US troops have “completed their mission.” [Not really-- this is Rumsfeld cover-- he is using it for his military re-organization, which he had planned prior to taking office]
It is all too easy to believe that the main expense that these new emergency funds will defray is that of keeping US troops in Iraq for at least another two years. Pentagon officials are now being quite open about the perceived requirement for some 120,000 occupation troops supporting the new Iraqi government until 2007. Current plans are that the extra 30,000 personnel presently in Iraq will be able to leave once the elections are over. Unfortunately for Washington so far, very little of what has passed for its planning in Iraq has proven realistic. The $80 billion is also expected to include money for building a US embassy in Baghdad, estimated to cost 1.5 billion.
Whatever happens on Sunday, Iraq is still going to be a country on the brink of civil war; only the Washington-led occupation forces are managing to keep it from going over the cliff. As the bills mount and the list of US dead and wounded continue to increase, American voters are going to begin losing patience. The war may have given an economic boost to American defense firms, but it is being paid for with the dollars of the average American taxpayer.
The danger now is a groundswell of popular opinion, protesting that Bush has fought his revenge war on international terror in the wrong way and in the wrong place. The solution for America would be to bring the boys home which might, however, push Iraq into civil war.
Republicans are salivating over making massive cuts elsewhere in the budget-- to programs that benefit and help AMERICAN citizens. "The budget I'll be submitting is one that says, `We'll spend money on projects that work but we must make sure we're not wasting the taxpayers' money,''' Bush said.
<br>
27 January 2005 —<br> <br>
THOUGH Iraqis are paying the highest price by far for George Bush’s invasion of their country, the United States is making its own significant contribution in both blood and coin. Yesterday’s crash of a US Marine helicopter near the Jordanian border claiming 31 lives was the largest single casualty figure in Iraq. Even as detailed news of this latest loss broke, the administration in Washington was announcing the need for at least an extra $80 billion in funding, largely to pursue US policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. This amount will propel war spending since 9/11 to $300 billion.
Is the world really $300 billion safer or are all those dollars simply being hurled by the fistful onto the blaze that Bush ignited in Iraq? Couldn’t a good part of so vast a sum of money have been better used addressing injustice, despair and poverty, the very things on which terrorism feeds so hungrily? We shall of course never know. Yet it ought to give pause for thought that this very week, the world’s richest man, Microsoft boss Bill Gates, has pledged $750 million of his own money to fund a global campaign of immunization against childhood diseases. He has pointed out that his contribution dwarves the combined total already offered by America and Europe.
The Pentagon, whose 2005 budget this year — not including the extra money — is $400 billion, says that part of the cash is earmarked for the training and provision of equipment to Iraqi and Afghani forces to whom Washington intends to hand over when it is deemed that US troops have “completed their mission.” [Not really-- this is Rumsfeld cover-- he is using it for his military re-organization, which he had planned prior to taking office]
It is all too easy to believe that the main expense that these new emergency funds will defray is that of keeping US troops in Iraq for at least another two years. Pentagon officials are now being quite open about the perceived requirement for some 120,000 occupation troops supporting the new Iraqi government until 2007. Current plans are that the extra 30,000 personnel presently in Iraq will be able to leave once the elections are over. Unfortunately for Washington so far, very little of what has passed for its planning in Iraq has proven realistic. The $80 billion is also expected to include money for building a US embassy in Baghdad, estimated to cost 1.5 billion.
Whatever happens on Sunday, Iraq is still going to be a country on the brink of civil war; only the Washington-led occupation forces are managing to keep it from going over the cliff. As the bills mount and the list of US dead and wounded continue to increase, American voters are going to begin losing patience. The war may have given an economic boost to American defense firms, but it is being paid for with the dollars of the average American taxpayer.
The danger now is a groundswell of popular opinion, protesting that Bush has fought his revenge war on international terror in the wrong way and in the wrong place. The solution for America would be to bring the boys home which might, however, push Iraq into civil war.
Republicans are salivating over making massive cuts elsewhere in the budget-- to programs that benefit and help AMERICAN citizens. "The budget I'll be submitting is one that says, `We'll spend money on projects that work but we must make sure we're not wasting the taxpayers' money,''' Bush said.
<br>