Really gruesome stuff today in Fallujah. If there was ever a time for a resolute, public committment from the President to stabilizing and democratizing Iraq, now is it. The other option–at least if past precedent is any indication–is to get Jerry Bruckheimer on the phone.
Those crazy Iraqis, always shooting for the moon! With a rate of progression similar to that of their benevolent occupiers, they should be a little more than halfway to their goal by about 2219.
On the vitamin supplements for cats
one hand, here's a president who is the victim of his staff's and his own naive underestimation of the Iraq war's cost in human and financial terms asking for an additional $87 billion to fund an exercise that is increasingly unpopular with the Paul Harvey set.
On the other, here's a president making what appears to be long-term committment to the restoration of order to Iraq and Afghanistan that many–myself included–thought he would never make once the going got rough. And that he's appealing for a multi-national force to do so is equally impressive and uncharacteristic.
For now it seems appropriate to quietly applaud Bush's committment to rebuilding these nations, but I'm skeptical that this administration will stay committed to these rebuilding projects during the 2004 election campaign, assuming the American public continues to place more weight on domestic issues than foreign policy.
Russian super-rag Pravda sums up the confusion best:
