There is no stopping this Texas cowboy. He is on a rampage and his global bullying policy isn’t stopping with Iraq. Even while Iraq is escalating into a potential civil war, the US debt is reaching an all-time high; Bush is still spewing his venomous threats toward Iran.
Bush preaches using diplomacy to resolve the Iran conflict. Sound familiar? Remember 3 years ago when Bush was “exhausting” diplomacy to resolve the Iraq WMD crisis? At the same time his troops were being deployed by the thousands to the Middle East. Iran is at least 20 years away from developing a nuclear weapon, and even at that point it wouldn’t be able to reach the United States. Bush is once again crying of an “imminent threat” by Iran. His pre-emptive policy toward other countries is more of an imminent threat to other countries than any country could threaten the US. If only he had some troops available to attack Iran, they would already be deployed and put on “stand-by” while diplomacy takes its course.
Back home Americans are beginning to see through his policies with all time low approval ratings for Bush. His tax cuts can only gain so much support. What good are tax cuts when the federal debt limit has been raised to 9 trillion? The US economy will pay the price a few years down the road. The debt has been raised 4 times since Bush took office, going up by 3 trillion. His Iraq war is costing 7 billion per month, and the estimated total cost is already around 250 billion. The current federal deficit is around $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States of America.
Before Bush took office, Clinton had a budget surplus from 1998 until 2001 inclusive. In 2000 the surplus was 236 billion dollars. Since Bush took office, there have been staggering record deficits of 158 billion in 2002, 378 billion in 2003, 413 billion in 2004, and 318 billion in 2005. Bush’s tax cuts might give immediate relief to Americans, but are sending the country in a downward spiral.
His imperial wars in the Middle East will only cost Americans more money and make more enemies. When all of the troops are tied up in Bush’s wars, his offensive capability will be diminished and other countries will take advantage.
I’ll leave you with a lovely quote regarding the invasion of Iraq from Stephen Hadley, Bush’s National Security Advisor:
“Obviously, we didn’t have the intelligence we needed in that particular instance,” Hadley said. “In some sense, those countries that pursue weapons of mass destruction in secret also learned an important lesson; that there are risks of that kind of behavior and that kind of activity.”
Stephen Hadley – Bush’s National Security Advisor
Sources: Congressional Budget Office (www.cbo.gov), National Priorities Project (nationalpriorities.org), CNN, CBC