[Vision2020] Continuing "The Ramadi Hell Hole"

[Joan Opyr]

On Jul 7, 2006, at 7:13 AM, Sunil Ramalingam wrote:

> Dick,
>
> You always make this response to long-term bases in Iraq.  I've 
> provided web addresses in the past, and you pretend we're not building 
> these things.  Why don't you Google 'Enduring bases Iraq' and see what 
> you find; perhaps you'll see that we're building long-term bases in 
> Iraq.
>
> If we're paying for this war the way we did all other wars, why is it 
> off-budget?  We're not paying as we go.  We're borrowing to fund this 
> war and making no effort to pay for it now; it's being passed on to 
> the next few generations while our government cuts taxes instead.
>
> Define what 'finishing the job' means.  Do you think any Iraqi 
> government can be legitimate if it agrees to the economic conditions 
> imposed by Paul Bremer?  In case you don't remember, he privatized the 
> Iraqi government in the hands of foreign - primarily US - 
> corporations.  Looks like colonization to me.
>
> Sunil

Dear Sunil,

I must admit that I'm basing this largely on a 1974 Schoolhouse Rock 
song called "Tyrannosaurus Debt," but I don't believe we've ever paid 
for any U. S. war "as we go."  We ran up our first national debt paying 
for the Revolutionary War, and we've gone on doing the same thing ever 
since -- the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, WWI, WWII, Korea, 
Vietnam, the first Gulf War, and now this, Operation Enduring Debt.  It 
could be that Schoolhouse Rock is mistaken, but I don't think so.  When 
we go to war, we go into debt.  We always have.  The question, for me, 
is why this war?  Why Iraq?  I can understand our actions in 
Afghanistan -- or, at least, our initial actions.  I would have 
supported ousting the Taliban before they offered asylum to Osama bin 
Laden, back when they banned education for girls and employment for 
women.  We needed to have intervened via the United Nations in the name 
of human rights before our own ox was gored.  We needed to have given a 
damn about the women and children of Afghanistan, suffering under the 
Taliban and the warlords.

As for Iraq, do we really believe that we will pay for this war someday 
with the revenues from Iraqi oil, revenues that are not now and will 
never be ours?  The oil contracts have already been sold to private 
corporations.  None of the profits will find their way into either the 
U. S. or the Iraqi treasuries.

On a somewhat related note, I read in the newspaper a few days ago that 
George W. Bush had a low-key 60th birthday.  It would seem that he's 
spent the past several months fretting over the awful prospect of 
getting older.  Isn't that sad?  All I could think when I read that was 
of how many men and women in Iraq no longer have the luxury of worrying 
about wrinkles and gray hairs.  Thanks to Mr. Bush, Arlington National 
Cemetery is full of people who will be young forever.

Happy 60th, you selfish, self-centered, thoughtless man.

Joan

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com

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