Any idiot can find 100 bucks. Unfortunately for idiots everywhere, this lucky idiot will likely blow the Benjamin on something quickly lost or consumed - gambling and liquor come to mind.
Much in the same way, President George W. Bush made the most foresighted decision in U.S. foreign policy since the Marshall Plan by invading Iraq in March seemingly on accident. The war with all the right reasons made for all the wrong ones still drags on, more than 100 days after "major combat operations" were declared a done deal by Top Gun himself.
The top source of U.S. crude oil imports in July 2003 was Saudi Arabia (1.835 million barrels per day), according to U.S. Department of Energy statistics released on Sept. 15. Saudi Arabia is and has been a corrupt oligarchy for nearly it's entire existence, but as the royal family there loses more and more control of the country to fundamentalist clerics the stability of the oil trade is threatened.
The wheels of revolution in Saudi Arabia have started moving inexorably toward a violent overthrow of the Saud family and the end of U.S. economic intervention. While troops in Iraq might appear as a deterrent to a rational faction of revolutionaries, we must remember that these are not "soldiers" as Howard Dean might suggest, but terrorists being manipulated by warlords who wish to hold western interests hostage in the heart of their holy land.
From an international public relations standpoint it would be a nightmare for the United States to invade the Arabian Peninsula. Such a move would incite more misery in Israel, destabilize the oil trade and provide an al-Qaida recruitment video only Osama bin Laden could love.
As a result, Iraq becomes more crucial. Their vast oil reserves will not only replace Saudi production, but a potentially liberal democracy could have far-reaching impact throughout the Arab world.
This of course leads to why and how George W. Bush is squandering his chance to be the Harry S Truman of the 21st Century. Bush, seeking a bargaining chip with North Korea and Iran, thought that the overthrow and capture/killing of Saddam Hussein would intimidate the two stronger members of the "Axis of Evil" into giving in over nuclear weapons negotiations.
Bush however, in his obsessively machismo way overplayed his hand late last year and early into this year by embellishing claims of Iraqi nerve gas and killer germs.
Clearly there was no reason to justify the war over nonsense when there was common sense to support it.
Now, we lose soldiers daily who are sitting ducks as they guard intersections. Bush is making the historically insane decision of trying to win this war on the cheap. Instead of going the whole nine yards and establishing a workable infrastructure (i.e. water, electricity and domestic security personnel) with American dollars and more American backup, we are crawling back to the hypocrites of Western Europe for a bailout.
What we need is a leader who has the guts to send enough troops to adequately protect our vital interests - which includes American lives - in Iraq. More troops mean fewer people thinking they can get away with killing the ones that are there as well as providing more security for infrastructural improvement projects.
Next we need an articulated end game as far as the turning over of the day to day administrational responsibilities to Iraqis. This will lead to Americans coming home, as true liberators.
Bush seems to have missed the boat until now. The $87 billion might help, but it's less about rhetoric and symbolism at this point, and more about the bottom line, which is victory or oblivion.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
