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February 22, 2003
Tilting at Windmills
I'm feeling pretty angry today.
Yesterday, my mom was crying. That's a hard thing for a daughter to hear, especially when there's really nothing I can do to help her.
See, my parents worked hard all their lives, setting aside money for retirement and investing in the stock market like you're supposed to (and like Bush has said wants to do with Social Secrurity by "privatizing" it), and basically being good, responsible citizens. I'm sure you all know where this is going. Yep, the bottom fell out of the stock market and now they're not sure how they're going to make what's left last.
What makes it worse is that - as many older Americans do - they need a variety of medications to help their bodies keep up with their minds, and since they're retired, they have to rely on Medicare for their health insurance. Yeah, it's not much help with prescription drugs, is it?
Of course, the government could choose to come up with some kind of real economic stimulus - something that would help the stock market recover and let people earn money rather than lose it, but the administration would rather give tax breaks to people who don't have to worry about how they're going to survive during their retirement years. Oh, and they want to elimiate income taxes on capital gains - which is going to help, exactly, how? If people are losing money in the stock market, exactly what gains are they not going to be paying taxes on?
Part of what has me so angry is Bush's plan to pay Turkey $15 billion (with a "b") dollars (in grants and "loans" - which often don't seem to ever get paid back) to let us station our troops in their country so we can attack Iraq from the north. Fifteen billion dollars! True, $15 billion is better than the $26 billion amount I'd been hearing about yesterday (and less than half of the $32 billion Turkey reportedly wanted), but it's still $15 billion dollars.
That kind of money would buy my folks - and people like them - quite a few months-worth of their medications. Hell, it could help refill their depleted bank and stock accounts! That much money could stimulate the economy a lot more than telling us to buy duct tape will. It could help younger people be able to get better educations so they have a better chance at getting one of the few jobs that are left. It could do a lot of things other than rent us a bit of space in a foreign country so that we can go prove what a big bully America can be.
When it comes to spending money on the war, though, this is what Bush had to say about it recently:
"As we insist that Congress be wise with your money, we're going to make sure we spend enough to win this war," Bush said.
After the applause died down, he added, "And by spending enough to win a war, we may not have a war at all."
Right. Like he's not going to find any excuse he can to have his little war, regardless of what it costs.
Of course, he also says:
If the United States were to "liberate" the Iraqis, "they can rest assured that we will help them build a country that is disarmed and peaceful and united and free," he said.
Except that no money has been budgeted for rebuilding Iraq. None was initially allocated in this year's budget for helping to rebuild Afghanistan, either, which (in case everyone has forgotten) we recently helped push through it's own regime change - after promising to help rebuild - and then promptly left in the dust.
After all, look at our behavior in Afghanistan. In the beginning, money was no object; victory over the Taliban was as much a matter of bribes to warlords as it was of Special Forces and smart bombs. But President Bush promised that our interest wouldn't end once the war was won; this time we wouldn't forget about Afghanistan, we would stay to help rebuild the country and secure the peace. So how much money for Afghan reconstruction did the administration put in its 2004 budget?
None. The Bush team forgot about it. Embarrassed Congressional staff members had to write in $300 million to cover the lapse. You can see why the Turks, in addition to demanding even more money, want guarantees in writing. Administration officials are insulted when the Turks say that a personal assurance from Mr. Bush isn't enough. But the Turks know what happened in Afghanistan, and they also know that fine words about support for New York City, the firefighters and so on didn't translate into actual money once the cameras stopped rolling. [Paul Krugman, The New York Times]
I don't think it would be so infuriating if anything about this war made sense, but it doesn't. Our leaders can't give us a coherent reason - that holds up to scruitny - as to why we need to depose Saddam Hussein. North Korea is a lot closer to being able to attack us with nuclear weapons, but we're not threatening to invade them yet. Osama bin Laden is still running about able to organize and finance terrorists, and yet he still hasn't been brought to justice. Near as I can tell, we're barely even trying to find him any longer. We're constantly being told that we need to bring Saddam down to reduce the threat of terrorism, but now the Homeland Security Department is telling us that if we do attack Iraq, it may make us even more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, not less. And, while we're ostenibly fighting this war to help ensure the Iraqi people can have a free and democratic country, we're having our rights chipped away at every turn.
So, yeah, I'm pretty angry right now, and aside from doing whatever I can to make my voice heard and my opinion known, there's not much I can do - and there's no guarantee that even making myself heard will do much of anything. I feel a bit like Don Quixote tilting at his windmills - but tilt I must. Like sealing up my house with duct tape and plastic sheeting, it may not do much good, but at the very least, it has to be better than sitting around and doing nothing at all.
Posted by thorswitch at February 22, 2003 10:44 AM
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