Dubya to Dems: “Thanks for Funding My Wars!”

Posted by Enrique on 07.01.2008

Bipartisanship



Although President Bush has long been criticized as one of the most divisive chief executives in U.S. history, he continues to demonstrate the spirit of bipartisanship in his final year of Oval Office occupancy. On Monday, Bush signed a bill that funds war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through early 2009, to the tune of $162 billion. He was even gracious enough to acknowledge he couldn't have done it without the Democrats:

"This bill shows the American people that even in an election year, Republicans and Democrats can come together to stand behind our troops and their families," Bush said in an Oval Office ceremony…

"I appreciate that Republicans and Democrats in Congress agreed to provide these vital funds without tying the hands of our commanders and without an artificial timetable of withdrawal from Iraq," Bush said.

Devious bastard, that Bush. You almost have to admire how Dubya went out of his way to thank the Democrats for their support. It's almost as if he's really saying, "Thanks, Democrats, for pretending that you wanted to stop the wars when you were trying to regain power, and then giving me all the money and troops I wanted once you had solid congressional majorities. If there's one thing we can agree on, it's spending loads of money on government programs with no foreseeable positive outcome. Heckuva job."

One of the more tedious rhetorical devices utilized by anti-war folks is to call Iraq "Bush's war," as if it hadn't been authorized by 29 Democrat Senators and 81 Congresspersons. Maybe that's hair-splitting – as Commander-in-Chief, the ultimate responsibility for the conduct of the war rests squarely on Bush's shoulders. Still, this latest $162 billion money bomb passed the Senate on a 92-6 vote, a week after passing in the House, 416-12. With this latest round of spending, the Iraq war price tag now reads $650 billion. Think of all the other inefficient, useless crap the government could have wasted that money on instead.

In any case, it seems like a hell of a lot of Democrats have bought into "Bush's war" these days. In contrast, total spending on Afghanistan stands at a relatively paltry $200 billion, even though it's been going on about 16 months longer than Iraq. Speaking of the War Everyone Loved, the situation appears to be deteriorating – more U.S. and NATO troops were killed in Afghanistan in the last two months than in Iraq. I hate to think the solution is throwing more money at the problem, so perhaps a strategic adjustment is in order. So I went to Barack Obama's official web site to see what plans he has for Afghanistan.

Oddly, at first glance, I couldn't find anything on Afghanistan at Obama's web site. There's a section on Iraq and Foreign Policy, but nothing specifically about Afghanistan. I must be missing something. In any case, I filled out the form on Obama's "contact us" page, asking for specifics on his plan for Afghanistan. I'll report back if I hear anything.