The War's Dirty Secret: It's About Changing United States, Not Iraq

Much to her surprise, the federal government is promising to do everything Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters has spent years fighting for.

Education for the neediest souls will be transformed, quality health care will be guaranteed, damaged roadways and bridges will be rebuilt, and millions of dollars will be spent to spur new business.

Waters just never figured the beneficiaries would be residents of Iraq.
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  thanks to wood s lot

The Cost of War

This comes to mind because of a bitter conversation I heard today. People were asking "where are the jobs, because they must be here if they can spend all that money in Iraq".

At a time of unprecidented fiscal crises in nearly every state and in most major cities in the US, there is a plan to spend billions on Iraq. The problem is that while there was a great deal of interest in spending that money in Iraq, including reforming education and spending money on universal health care, while the President only offers more tax cuts for the wealthy as our solutions. So if you live in Iraq, maybe occasionally shoot at Americans and teach children we are the great Satan returned, we will pay for your health care. Join the US Army, come home to Bay Ridge, you get no free health care and we'll cut your veterans benefits.

Someone else said, when they heard of the plan "maybe we ought to bring Saddam to Brooklyn, because then they can attack Brooklyn and give them healthcare."
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Gulf War Syndrome II

Soldiers now fighting in Iraq are being exposed to battlefield hazards that have been associated with the 'Gulf War Syndrome' that afflicts a quarter-million veterans of the 1991 war, said a former Central Command Army officer in Operation Desert Storm.

Part of the threat today includes greater exposure to battlefield byproducts of 'depleted uranium' munitions used in combat, said the former officer and other Desert Storm veterans trained in battlefield health and safety.
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After Iraq: Perpetual War and a Nuclear World

John Bolton is at it again. Just in case the Arabs were worried that the attack on Iraq is just the beginning of an American crusade, the Assistant Secretary of State for Disarmament Affairs rushed to confirm their worst fears.

Speaking on the U.S.-financed Arabic station Radio Sawa, Bolton declared: "We are hoping that the elimination of the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein and the elimination of all of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction would be important lessons to other countries in the region, particularly Syria, Libya, and Iran, that the cost of their pursuit of weapons of mass destruction is potentially quite high." The statement is especially significant, coming as it does from the man who went to Israel two months ago to promise Ariel Sharon that "it will be necessary to deal with threats from Syria, Iran and North Korea afterwards."

Of the list of likely villains, Syria – Israel's neighbor – is shaping up to be the strongest candidate for the next war of "liberation." The administration is already preparing the reasons why Syria should be the next in line – for arming Saddam, hosting his hidden weapons, and supporting terrorism.
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