It just gets worse
"Whatever one's views on the war, thoughtful Americans need to consider the damage it is doing to the United States, and the bitter anger that it has provoked among Muslims around the world. That anger is spreading like an unchecked fire in an incredibly vast field." [→ READ ]
Bob Herbert writes truly, again:
Americans are paying a fearful price for Mr. Bush’s adventure in Iraq. In addition to the toll of dead and wounded, the war is costing about $5 billion a month. It has drained resources from critical needs here at home, including important antiterror initiatives that would improve the security of ports, transit systems and chemical plants.
I note that $5 billion per month means the war in Iraq is costing U.S. taxpayers almost $167 million per day, or almost $7 million per hour.
Even the hardest-nosed, green-visored accountant has to ask —
What is the ROI of this endeavor?
Where is the capital coming from to fund it? From cash on hand? Or from our children’s and grandchildren’s future earnings?
No child left behind? This $7 million per hour racing out of the U.S. means there’s a whole lot of everything being left behind, being left undone.
The war has diminished the stature and weakened the credibility of the United States around the world. And it has delivered a body blow to the readiness of America’s armed forces. Much of the military is now overdeployed, undertrained and overworked. Many of the troops are serving multiple tours in Iraq. No wonder potential recruits are staying away in droves. …
The immediate challenge to President Bush is to dispense with the destructive fantasies of the true believers in his administration and to begin to see America’s current predicament clearly. New voices with new approaches and new ideas need to be heard. The hole we’re in is deep enough. We need to stop digging.
These true believers’ living in a fantasy world, resolutely unwilling to deal with reality, puts us all at grave risk. We’re in free fall like an off-course satellite that is no longer responding to input, its control systems offline, that’s beginning its fiery descent into the atmosphere. We’re in free fall like Gollum as he slo-mo falls back-first into the lava of Mount Doom, so utterly pleased with himself that he’s oblivious to his imminent incineration.
We must see clearly. We must act wisely. The price of our macho fantasy is chaos; the cost of our disconnect from reality is death. Unlike the fantasy world of Star Trek, there will be no transporter to beam us out safely at the last second.
Can we awaken in time? Can our sensor array come back online?
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