Troop Splurge
All signs point to an escalation of the war, with between twenty to fifty thousand more troops to be sent to Iraq to achieve . . . well, no one really knows. The on-the-ground generals who advised against a "surge" have been replaced. The "Iraq is a disaster and we must disengage" recommendations of the Iraq Study Group are already gathering dust on the War President's bookshelf, as thoroughly discredited "let's remake the Middle East" neocons still write the script. The recent election results and continuing polling that shows large majorities of the American people in favor of ending the war NOW apparently count for nothing.
The new Congress did show some backbone, sending Bush sternly worded objections to any escalation of hostilities or increase in troop levels. But their only power is to cut off funding for the war, and Democrats are unwilling to do anything that could translate politically into non-support of the troops.
So, assuming he can muster fresh and able fighting forces — no simple task, according to mostly muted voices within the military — Bush will have another round of shock-and-awe. Tens of thousands more Iraqis will die, while too many others will be forced to join the more than a million refuges who have already fled the country.
The American death toll will likewise increase, though at a rate that the neocons consider reasonable. "War isn't easy," they never tire of telling us. Nor is it cheap: we are currently spending $6 billion a month to "remake" the Middle East, and that's a Pentagon figure; since honest accounting has never been a hallmark of the American war machine, we are likely spending way, way more.
The eternally painful and depressing irony is that, while waging war is never easy or cheap, making peace is.
With $6 billion a month over the past four years to spend, we the peaceful could have created world-class universal healthcare for all Americans; could have rebuilt all of the nation's essential infrastructure — its roads, bridges, waterways, and communication systems; could have blanketed the country with super-fast internet access; could have brought all of our schools up to A+ levels; could have sparked an entrepreneurial revolution in safe, clean, renewable energies; could have led the world out of climate-change dangers; could have done all this and more, and still had money left for pressing global issues.
And, all of this money would have flowed into the pockets of ordinary people doing good work.
Really, nothing could be easier than world peace.
Don't let a handful of self-serving, over-fed, war-addicted fools tell you otherwise. More troops means more war and more war will never bring peace to the Middle East or anywhere else.