sigh

[curieuse]

Bush's new budget: Trim Medicare and Medicaid to provide $100 billion more for Iraq.

Time for that second passport, folks.

Comments

[rainswolf.livejournal.com]

Why is he so freakin' obsessed with Iraq??? !!!!!

[pinkroo.livejournal.com]

*gnashing teeth*

[cynicgal.livejournal.com]

Good ole'-fashioned American welfare: taking from the poor to further line the pockets of the rich. He could give a fuck about Iraq, but oil? Yes. Free handouts to huge corporations in the form of 'contracts'? You bet your ass.

I mean, hell, who can be suprised in a country that subsidized particular kinds of immigration through particular kinds of genocide? Ain't nothing changed, folks.

Pardon the cynicism, Julie, I know it disturbs your motif.

[tempter.livejournal.com]

See, I don't think that's true. If I'm forced to choose between our presence in Iraq being a conspiracy based on oil and money versus Bush believing we needed to go into Iraq to take out Saddam Hussein, I really have to go with the latter.

(That might just be because I don't give Bush enough credit to be able to pull off the former option, though.)

[cynicgal.livejournal.com]

I'm really not trying to start a flame war here on Julie's blog, but good lord, how can this be seen as outside of the long history of Western imperialism? You know how private companies from Britain, France, Germany, etc., after kidnapping and selling Africans for hundreds of years, turned to 'legitimate trade' and quickly suckered their governments into funding their security (sending national armies to defend the interests of private corporations)? How is this different?

I just don't see it.

[tempter.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying they're NOT benefitting. When you hear about things like Haliburton's no-bid contracts in Iraq, or you read things like Rajiv Chandrasekaran's experiences, you can tell something's amiss, and someone's making a tidy profit off all of this.

I just don't think it's accurate to pin it all on Bush. I don't think he's that clever. I wouldn't be surprised if he honestly believes the baseless Saddam/al-Qaeda connection, because I think in his mind, they're all "The Bad Guys". That doesn't excuse his actions and that doesn't mean there isn't corruption and conspiracy among the rest of his administration -- I just don't think he, personally, is smart enough for it.

[drownedinink.livejournal.com]

Given that Bush has displayed serious issues with his father, it wouldn't surprise me if he really was concerned with overthrowing Saddam (after all, invading Iraq was in the books even before 9/11). Being a student of history, world leaders have done drastic things at least partially for bizarre personal reasons depressingly often.

As to how deep in his own ideology Bush is, that's a really fascinating question. I wouldn't argue that Bush did believe in the Saddam/Al Qaeda connection, but he probably did and does believe that invading Iraq was a good thing for its people and that seizing Iraq's oil resources was both a necessary and a profitable thing. As for turning the reconstruction into a free-for-all for international corporations, well, it's just business, right?

Regardless, the histories that will be written twenty or so years from now are going to make for excellent reading, I suspect. Here's hoping we'll have an American Suetonius or Tacitus.

[cynicgal.livejournal.com]

I am also a student of history (quite literally: I am studying for my Ph.D. in history). But, see, I am a student of African and African Diaspora history, and imperialism looks a little bit different from where I am standing. To me, it is impossible to see this as anything but a continuation of imperial policy as practiced for the last 500 years. The personal is irrelevant to Iraqi children being blown up in the streets, as the U.S. media continues to turn a blind eye to any possibility that folks who aren't white have political agendas (notice how it is always an ethnic/relgious conflict?).

I could really care less about the motives, but the end result remains the same for the colonized.

[drownedinink.livejournal.com]

I could really care less about the motives, but the end result remains the same for the colonized.

Agreed, and certainly even understanding Bush's motives won't probably do much to change US policy, as you can argue that Bush is in the overview an extreme manifestation of upper class United States culture and American exceptionalism.

I still find it interesting to think about, though.

[fortifiedi.livejournal.com]

I would be very surprised if this budget made any headway in congress. Regardless, I am happy to be married a Canadian citizen.

[theoneinblue.livejournal.com]

and I to a German citizen. The paperwork for a temporary work permit over there is very easy, my father-in-law assures me...

Um, yeah.....

[ellie717.livejournal.com]

Hey, how did you and all your pals marry someone foreign? I should have gotten in on that action. Hehehe. Seriously though. My husband is a Naval officer and pilot. He loves what he does and chooses to believe it is always for a good cause. He really can not help where he gets sent for duty. And yes, unfortunately, Bush almost directly pays our salary and bills (yikes!) Regardless of whether or not we should have started this war in the 1st place I think it has gone on for FAR TOO LONG and FAR TOO MANY PEOPLE have died without much progress. We freed that country from an insane man's control - now THEY need to step up and rebuild a better country for THEMSELVES. Everyone seems to forget that America had both a Revolutionary War and Civil War - we were not without our own stupidity and our own growing pains.
But the number one thing that comes to my mind when I think of the money and time spent on Iraq? With all those resources used in another direction we probably could have cured cancer or something by now!!!

[(Anonymous)]

Before the 2000 election, the LA Times carried a commentary article saying how in the 1980's Bush family money was mostly invested in Texas, while by 2000, it was mostly invested in the Middle East.

Also the neocon website, new am century, spoke at length on controling world resources to continue US hegemony.

Having carried a draft card for six years of Vietnam, this is just the same old stuff. Iraq makes VN look like a GOOD idea, at least there was a capitalist middle class we were defending there.