The New York Times calls Squandered Victory, the hot new book by Larry Diamond, “an insider’s troubling account of the U.S. role in Iraq.”
Diamond, a scholar and former senior adviser to Baghdad’s Coalition Provisional Authority, describes the “failures of the Bush administration to prepare” for the postwar in “chilling – and often scathing – detail.” Diamond recounts “day-to-day realities on the ground,” a “stark contrast” to Bush’s spin.
Meanwhile, The Guardian‘s Simon Jeffries lashes himself for failing “to foresee the collapse of postwar Iraq,” then explicates the Downing St. minutes, mentioning that The Village Voice has a good primer on DSM.
The AP reports that “[t]he House is expected to give the Pentagon an additional $45 billion for wars next year even as public support for combat in Iraq wanes and lawmakers press for an exit strategy.”
On Thursday, “a House subcommittee recommended almost halving the president’s $3 billion request” for aid to poor countries next year, “citing the pressures of a tight budget,” reports the NYT. The aid is being shredded amidst “intense criticism from African leaders and the departure of its director after only a year in the job.”
All the while — with PBS/NPR budgets and HUD’s fair housing program severely cut back — money disappears god knows where in Iraq:
inc_totals_at_rate(1000);
…and what isi worse, IMO, is that this man, Mr. Diamond, is a for war man and he saw things that should bring America to the understand that what this WH and Pentagon has done to America an dIraq I shere madness and corruption to say the least..That J.Paul Bremmer is the biggest duck inthe puddle and that even after being sent by C. Rice, that his report was not even considered. This to me is tail telling, if nothing is.
His article is very revealing to, say the least!
The NYT review says that Diamond was against the war but that accepted the job when his old Stanford buddy, Condi Rice, called him and asked him to help. He thought it might be a great chance to put to practice some of his studies on democracy.
Whose report wasn’t considered? Diamond’s? Oh, I’d like to read about that … missed that one.
oh yes, wouldn’t you just love to read it! bet in all consideratiions that his report was like what he wrote in the NYT, and it was not suitable for the powers that be…wanna bet???
I love the counter Susan, I wish that could be on the site somewhere, until this war is over and settled.
How hight will that number climb?
It is cool. Up to Boo. It’s very easy to add. Just click on the link, and they give you copy-and-paste code.
I found it when I looked up the Web site for a terrific half-hour news program I’ve been catching on Free Speech TV:
Liberty News
(The Web site is kind of amateur-ish but I think their news program is excellent. You can watch it on their site.
Well I hope you suggest it to him, we need a constant reminder of the cost of this war, should have another one ticking off the deficit and other numbers. Brings it home in a very real way.
How about sending counters to all members of congress to sit on their desks and remind them this is our money they are throwing down the s…hole…
Susan just had a thought as a protest item, have them manufactured as a desk accessory and then send one to each member of congress. NOt to Bushco, tho, they already have one and that one is counting up the billions they have stolen from us and given to their buddies.
Approximately $3000 per second.
Absolutely mindboggling, considering that it is “too expensive” to fund universal health care, support a living wage for all Americans, fund public television, provide humanitarian aid to foreign countries, and take care of senior citizens and children with programs like SS and HeadStart.
Off to check out the Liberty news site. :^)
Its a war on the people of America as well as on Iraq. They used/are using the war to steal tax money from us.
“hypocritical bastard” in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of George W. Bush. This from the White House – part of a Bush press conference:
Unfuckingbelievable. He says Congress, which the Republicans control, needs to be wise about spending money, while Bush pisses away billions on an immoral, indeed criminal invasion of a country that was no threat to us.
that could blow the GOP out of the water if we’d just use it right. It’s not just about Iraq. Check out the whole site, especially the Trade-Offs part.
We could win back both houses of Congress and get rid of Bush if we played these numbers right. That means dramatizing their real personal meanings and spreading them in every state, one issue at a time.
In PA, for example:
If Bush hadn’t pushed through the $89 billion tax cut for the richest five percent, the money could have gone to the people of Pennsylvania to hire over 60,000 teachers and put our schools back on the right track.
In Pennsylvania we are paying $82 billion in taxes just to support an Iraq invasion that has done nothing for us but cost us our young peoples’ lives and bring dishonor to our country. If the Bush administration had not lied us into war, that money could have built 756 badly needed new elementary schools right here in Pennsyvania. Or provided needed health care for more than four million Pennsylvania children. The Republicans and Santorum tell us to “choose life”, all the while they are choosing misery for our children and death for our soldiers. Choose life: dump Santorum before he hurts another child or gets another young Pennsylvania man or woman killed.
That should be $8.2 billion to support the Iraq war. Dammit. Do as I say, not as I do.
Americans heard serious talk of government being able to accomplish major social goals.
We’ve got maybe 1/3 of the electorate who can’t comprehend such a thing even if they had the numbers in front of them.
People still want schools that work and healthcare and transportation, and all the rest. But you’re right: the Dems have folded with regard to everything they claimed to believe in. I’m hoping for a resurgence on that score.
I think the crucial thing is that for all the blubber and blabber about “patriotism”, the plain fact is that Americans in fact no longer give a damn about the US of A or its government. That’s why showing how the GOP has used the federal government to deprive them of what they want IN THEIR STATES is so powerful.
We need to put the national politiking on the back burner and slog through this uncivil war state by weary state. If we do, we’ll win big.
The sole purpose of government for them is the protection of property and individual & economic liberties.
So it doesn’t matter that the war will eat up the ability of government to do anything else–that’s all they want to allow it to do anyways. And so far, most all their power blocks profit from this direction even with significant degradation of the nation.
is being spent on Iraq. And the US government cannot afford $1.20/per person per year for PBS.
I really hope booman puts this ticker up on the site somewhere, and i am going to put it on my blog.
I also bookmarked this diary so I can check it all the time. It is a great reminder for us that we need to work hard and fast and stopping this ticker.
Send this link to every person in congress…..
Is there a way susan to send this as active in an email. what is the code if it needs one…
Go here:
http://costofwar.com/embedinstr.html
Skip reading all the instructions. Just go to the white window, and copy that code.
Paste the code in your Web page. Voila.
btw, the easiest way to copy such stuff is:
CONTROL KEY + A (selects all)
Then CONTROL KEY + C (copies all)
Go to where you want to paste the text/code
CONTROL KEY + V (pastes all)