Squandering Resources: What Bush and the Majority GOP Do Best

The numbers in this post from the Ostroy Report hurt (but I heartily approve of the graphic - copied at the right here - which accompanies it):

The real tragedy of the quagmire in Iraq is the effect it's had on the United States' ability to engage its financial, military and political resources elsewhere. Since March 2003, we've squandered $300 billion and 2600 U.S. soldiers' lives on this unjust, poorly planned and ill-fated Bush vanity project. But now with the violence and bloodshed raging out of control in Israel, Lebanon and Gaza, the U.S. appears neutered; unable to effectively inject itself into a dire situation where American diplomacy and perhaps military involvement would normally be a bedrock in the process. In short, we're stuck where we don't belong, and cannot be where we do.

As the need for a multi-nation peacekeeping force in Southern Lebanon becomes paramount towards finding an end to the violence there, the Pentagon has made it clear that U.S. forces are stretched so thin primarily from Iraq that we cannot, unlike in the past, send out troops to participate in this mission.

"As far as boots on the ground, that doesn't seem to be in the cards," said John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. This position was echoed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: "I do not think that it is anticipated that U.S. ground forces . . . are expected for that force."

...That our nation's military resources and assets are so depleted that we cannot afford to send a few thousand troops into Lebanon is shameful. That this troop shortage precludes us from defending an ally and our own interests in the region is both maddening and frightening.