May 2, 2008
The Facts
Today President Bush asked Congress for $70 billion to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The funding would be a bridge that takes the war from October 2008 through the spring of 2009. The latest request would bring the total to $875 billion since 911. Of that amount, over two-thirds have been for the war in Iraq. $2 billion of the requested $70 billion would go to Iraqi security force.
My View
You may recall that Bush and his supporters told the American people at the beginning of the Iraqi war that it would cost no more then $60 billion. He was just a little off there; the same way he was “just a little off” with his campaign promise in 2000 that he would reduce the price of oil at a time when oil was averaging around $25 per barrel. Obviously, Bush is either the worlds biggest liar or completely untrustworthy. Most would probably say both.
In spite of that, the Democratic Congress should pass the bill for Bush’s request without a hitch. By that, I mean they should pass it just as it comes from Bush’s desk without adding or taking out a single thing. Why? So he and the Republican Party can not use that later as an excuse for the war(s) failures. We already know that they have blamed the Democrats for all the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, in spite of the fact that the Republicans controlled Congress the first 6 of Bush’s 8 years in office. The Bush administration has accepted no blame for the failures that have come from the wars although they were the ones calling the shots, and that included all request for money. There’s an old saying that if you take away all the excuses someone has, in the end they can blame no one but themselves when they become a complete failure. As for the additional $70 billion, what’s another 70 going to amount to when we are talking about a trillion dollar war? Our country will be completely bankrupt before we pay that off anyway.
