Carl Hiaasen (Miami Herald): Vice president's war costly to Americans

[Dudley_DUright]

Dick Cheney's war is bleeding the Pentagon's budget, so the White House will soon ask Congress for extra money to keep the troops in Iraq.

Cheney himself went to China, which is a safe thing to do when you have the lowest approval rating of any vice president since Spiro Agnew.

Nobody should be surprised that the Iraqi war is costing billions more than they told us it would, because they've been wrong about nearly everything else.

Wrong about the weapons of mass destruction. Wrong about an al Qaeda connection to Saddam Hussein. Wrong about the insurgents being weakened and demoralized by Saddam's capture. Wrong about Iraqi tolerance for a long-term military occupation. And wrong -- tragically and arrogantly wrong -- when they announced the ``end of major combat.''

more...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/8504701.htm?1c

[soup]

1. Thanks, DD

Carl Hiaasen is a personal favorite.

last sentence of the column-
"Iraq is officially broken, and now we own it."

*sigh*

[Dudley_DUright]

2. Colin Powell should have resigned over the "Pottery Barn Rule"

He told Chimpy "you break it, you own it", but saluted and went along anyway. Unforgivable.

[Jade Fox]

3. Its great when popular culture figures write or say stuff against Bush....

They have a big impact.

Way to go, Hiaasen!

[FloridaPat]

4. What I don't get is why we have to give the Pentagon more than

the $500 billion a year it already gets? What does it do with all that money that it can't fight a war until it gets more money?

[rfkrocks]

5. The GOP war is a clear and present threat to our stability

We have spent ourselves into a fathomless pit just like BIN Laden planned. Iraqnam will bring inflation like the 1970s to our country-I am not sure how much the economy can take-the social services net in the country is ripping-law enforcement funds are stretched-this spending without responsibility is a disaster-oh and BTW Greenspan says people should get adjustable mortgages :eyes:

[opihimoimoi]

6. Just as we made the USSR spend themselves into a tizzy with

the Cold War shit, Osama is doing the same to us...and Bush is a willing hand.

7 $$Trillion and counting.

If Clinton was in office, the National debt would be about 2 trillion and dwindling. 740 of our people would still be alive. the WTC would NOT have been attacked, 500 firefighters/police/paramedics would still be living. The DOW would be about 16,000 and climbing.

[fencesitter]

7. Yup, that's it, to the point in a nutshell..

and people still want to send this crew back for another four years of disaster. mindboggling.

[Th1onein]

8. Please send LTTE about "owning Iraq"

We do NOT "own Iraq." We don't have to "stay the course." We toppled Saddam, the Shiites and the Sunnis are united (against us, yes, but they are still united), and we can get out now. We need to send Jimmy Carter, or someone like him, to talk to the leaders there about setting up a representative democracy/theocracy, and get the fuck out! AND we need to apologize.