On Wednesday Congess approved an additonal $70 billion for the horror in Iraq and Afghanistan, knocking the total up to $700 billion.

• “Using inflation-adjusted dollars the total cost of those wars has now surpassed the total cost of the Vietnam War (which ran to $670 billion). It’s also more than seven times larger than the Persian Gulf War ($94 billion) and more than twice the cost of the Korean War”
  — Travis Sharp of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Poliferation

Of course, the same old stories of the National Guard and other entities being used in the Middle East when they would come in handy fighting tramua in the US. The money goes further:

• This year alone, US taxpayers spent $137.6 billion on the Iraq War. For the same amount of money, the government could have provided more than 39 million million people with health care, built one million units of affordable housing, or outfitted 142 million homes with renewable electricity sources.
  — National Priorities Project

And even more. The Pentagon is increasing the number of people at its Baghdad office of arms supply to the Iraq, from a squad of six, now to more than 70, including a couple of generals. This is the same outfit that allowed 190,000 weapons to come up missing two years ago. This is the same outfit that can’t keep books, can’t keep up with is dangerous inventory.

• “For countries that are struggling with corruption, with internal violence, with threat of diverson or theft, is it the best policy to be funneling as many weapons to that country as possible? Or are there other things the United States could be doing first to strengthen democracy rather than just fueling the cycle.”
  — Richard Stohl, senior analyst, Center Defense Information

And what about Decider George, the creator of all this horror and all this mismanaged warfare:

• “There is a funtioning government. Are we satisified with progress in Iraq? No.
  They’ve got a lot of work to do. Don’t get me wrong, you know, I mean, I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t, as a government, continue to press them.”
  — Decider George on Thursday

The asshole said it right. It’s the government, not the people. An overwhelming majority of US peoples want the US out of Iraq yesterday. And in the latest polls from Iraq, on the Iraqi people, there is even a much greater desire for the US occupation to end, maybe like last week.

As Decider George said: “Don’t get me wrong, you know, I mean…”