Iraq War Costs Coming Due

Two or three years ago I blogged Iraq War and why the US should withdraw. While the invasion of Afghanistan was justified Iraq was not. To put forward their argument to the UN the Bush/Chaney administration sent Colin Powell, the person in the administration with the greatest credibility. Within weeks of the invasion it became clear that the Bush/Chaney administration intentionally misled America. To cover their folly and distract the nation from the crumbling rationale, in dramatic fashion Bush announced “mission accomplished”. Powell’s credibility and character were mere tools to be spent by people who lacked Powell’s depth of character and principles.

Over the subsequent months and years new rationale was put forward post invasion as pre-invasion rationale. Bush led a great nation into a war that is problematic on several levels. Besides being unjustified, the strategy and follow-up plans were highly questionable, and the war was not paid.

For any country to prosecute a war successfully, the entire nation must be involved in the sacrifice. War making must be a national activity, not only a military activity, that requires the nation to sacrifice not only its blood, but also its treasures. It is a folly not to demand the latter from the outset. It is the latter that helps hold the civil armchair political generals in check. What happened? Rather than paying for the war by demanding the sacrifice of the general public through increased taxes and the closing corporate loopholes, Bush/Chaney amplified the folly by cutting taxes and allowing American daily life to be lived as if there was no costs and thereby leaving the nation with a growing time bomb debt.

Costs do come due, costs that Bush/Chaney pushed the problem off to the next administration. Further compounding the problem their deregulatory actions enhanced the depth of the crisis by contributing to the housing bubble and the mortgage meltdown. Still further, contrary to his pontificating of being a “Uniter” and his campaign trail claims to work in a bi-partisans consensus building manner, the imperial Bush/Chaney administration worked in a highly dogmatic partisan manner which created today’s political environment that makes it problematic for the White House and Congress to achieve any bipartisan solution not only on the budget but most matters.

As more and more is revealed about the Bush/Chaney administration the more disgusted with their administration…and for acquiescing to his imperialism and imperial presidency, the Republican Congress, and the Republicans party. Some scholars are speculating that the Bush/Chaney administration may well go down as one of the worse two or three administrations in the last century, and be amongst the worst seven in American history. I am coming the conclusion that the administration not only bumbled its opportunities for greatness, to build a better nation and world, it also sowed the seeds for the problems that would will take the United States, and to a degree the world, a generation or two to overcome.