What 2,000+ Lives, $221 Billion--and Counting--Buys in Mesopotamia

The right to be labeled as legitimate targets.

A withdrawal based on a timetable--hmmm...somebody's not listening to Shrubleroy and the Penguin.

The strong possibility of civil or regional war.

And you've drained the treasury at a time when domestic needs are critical.

Nice job.

Oh--and on the subject of invasion in the first place, well, there's this unfortunate (for the administration) report alleging chemical weapon use by Iraq in 1991 against Kurdish forces. The chemical in question? White Phosphorus.

Meanwhile, Big Time's spinning so rapidly he might well corkscrew into the ground if he's not standing on concrete or asphalt.

While I still have relatively "good" cable teevee, I've been catching the various evening news shows--last night I was treated to yet another interview with John Murtha, who really seems to have gotten one thing, which he continues to repeat: the public is WAY ahead of the government on this. Um, yeah--the public is well aware of the REAL cost of war. Not just the money, but the shattered bodies, fractured families, lost or horribly maimed friends, lovers, husbands, wives, children...and for what? We're not curtailing terrorism--if anything, we're actively promoting it. We're not bestowing the blessing of civilization there: The Fertile Crescent is the goddamned CRADLE of western civilization--we may not like or even understand how they organize themselves, but they've done so for thousands of years without our assistance--and, as noted above, they'd like us to get the hell out, thank you very much.

It's been an awfully steep price to pay for a photo-op on an aircraft carrier.