Liberal Talk Radio

It looks like Bush, as usual, is going to get exactly what he wants with respect to Iraq war funding. It’s funny how these things happen. For a guy with a 30% approval rating, he sure seems to get his way an awful lot.

On the plus side, the Democrats are going to force some sort of reporting or benchmarks or general accountability out of the White House. I mean, if we’re spending a trillion bucks on this war, the least we can do is ask for an itemized receipt, right?

More broadly, the tenor of this debate is really nonsensical. Both sides need to stop using “the troops” as a political football. Apparently “supporting the troops” means sending them to die and “trying to bring them home” is somehow undermining them. Makes zero sense to me.

Personally, I’m more sympathetic to leaving than ever before. The only reason to stay is to avert a humanitarian crisis. The geostrategic arguments (i.e. “Iraq will become a haven for terrorists,” or “if we don’t fight them there, we’ll fight them at home”) are unconvincing. Iraq has enough oil wealth that, over the long haul, multinational corporations will (indirectly) support the rise of a brutal dictator who will have no use for Al Qaeda or Islamism. A dictator not unlike Saddam.

This, of course, would be horrible in humanitarian terms, as various factions consolidate their power, which is, like I said, the reason to keep troops there.