To understand not just the criminality of Bush and the neoconsters, but also their total disdain for life, you need look no further than a few sentences from Bob Herbert and Paul Krugman, published tonight.
This post is not about what we all know from having watched the wretched and willful disregard for the citizens of New Orleans, the surrounding Louisiana parishes and other portions of the Gulf Coast. We all know Bush ate cake, Condi shopped, Rummy watched baseball, Chertoff talked immigration and avian flu and Drownie totally did nothing - for starters.
Similarly, we all know Bush and the neoconsters lied to all of us as they debased the good will of our fellow citizens and the citizens of the world to pursue a reckless, illegal and operationally inept war of aggression on Iraq.
But, it's now. It's after we know all that we know that we are being confronted with their vile and willful intention to continue killing Iraqi citizens, destroying the lives of members of our Armed Forces, and denying any refuge or comfort to the thousands of our fellow citizens whose lives were devastated not just by hurricane Katrina but by a Federal government that did not care.
First Herbert:So the party line now is that the Iraqis at some point will have to bear the burden of Mr. Bush's war alone.
Talk about a cruel joke. On the same day that Senator McCain faced off with General Myers, more than 100 people were killed in a series of car bombs in a town north of Baghdad; five U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Ramadi; and the American general in charge of U.S. forces in Iraq, George Casey, admitted before the Armed Services Committee that only 1 of the Iraqi Army's 86 battalions was capable of fighting the insurgency without American help.
The American death toll in Iraq is fast approaching 2,000.
If the public could see the carnage close up, the way it saw the horror of New Orleans, the outrage would be beyond belief. You never want to say that brave troops died for the mindless fantasies spun by a gang of dissembling, inept politicians.
But what else did they die for?And what about all those men and women,
some of them barely out of childhood, who are lying awake nights, hardly able to move their broken, burned and paralyzed bodies? What do we tell them as they lie there, unable to curb the pain or fight off the depression, or even begin to understand the terrible thing that has happened to them?
What do we tell them about this war that their country inflicted on them for no good reason whatsoever? From
For No Good Reason By BOB HERBERT on October 3, 2005
More at the link:
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/03/opinion/03herbert.html?hp=&pagewanted=print What do we tell them?
We tell them that Bush and the neoconsters don't give a shit about their life, their suffering, their anything.
Nada.
Zip.
Zero.
Nothing.
Georgie boy is sleeping soundly and Condi is dreaming about her next pair of $ 2500.00 shoes.....
Now for Krugman:This dilemma explains the administration's opposition to Medicaid coverage for all Katrina refugees. How can it provide that coverage without undermining its ongoing efforts to reduce the Medicaid rolls? More broadly, if it accepts the principle that all hurricane victims are entitled to medical care, people might start asking why the same isn't true of all American citizens - a line of thought that points toward a system of universal health insurance, which is anathema to conservatives.
As for the administration's odd insistence on providing public housing instead of relying on the market, The Los Angeles Times reports that Department of Housing and Urban Development officials initially announced plans to issue rent vouchers, then backed off after meeting with White House aides. As the article notes, the administration has "repeatedly sought to cut or limit" the existing housing voucher program.
This suggests that what administration officials fear isn't that housing vouchers would fail, but that they would succeed - and that this success would undermine the administration's ongoing efforts to cut back housing aid.
So here's the key to understanding post-Katrina policy: Mr. Bush can't avoid helping Katrina's victims, but he doesn't want to legitimize institutions that help the needy, like the housing voucher program. As a result, his administration refuses to use those institutions, even when they are the best way to provide victims with aid. More generally, the administration is trying to treat Katrina's victims as harshly as the political realities allow, so as not to create a precedent for other aid efforts.As the misery of the hurricane's survivors goes on, remember this: to a large extent, they are miserable by design. From
Miserable by Design By PAUL KRUGMAN on October 3, 2005
More at the link:
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/03/opinion/03krugman.html?hp=&pagewanted=printGot it.
Miserable by design. That's what we tell our fellow citizens.
That is the lesson the entire world has learned from Bush and the neoconsters.
That is what the entire world now perceives as America.
Bush and the neoconsters inflict tragedy, willfully, and they respond to tragedy with willful neglect.
They answer the question as to what to do for 'the least of me' with the resounding, red-white-and-blue, answer ....
Nada.
Zip.
Zero.
Nothing.
And, Georgie boy is sleeping soundly and Cheney is dreaming about the next duck he'll kill with Scalia .....
Peace.
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