"Failure In Iraq Would Be a Disaster For Our Future"

As I listen to Bush sell his troop surge today at Fort Benning (where the applause is rather lukewarm for a handpicked audience of supporters only) - which we know began in December, long before he informed us or got authorization or even DOD Secretary Robert Gates' signature" - he keeps talking about how bad foreigners (fur-rin-ners) are for Iraq because they help spread radical extremism around the world.

Well, hell, I'd agree. Bush and those who carry his Koolaid are the worst possible foreigners for Iraq. Their radical extremism DOES threaten Iraq, the United States, and the entire rest of the world.

But Bush just keeps spinning it as "to save America, we gotta win in Iraq."

At what costs? Those to the Iraqis have been untold and way beyond endless nightmare. To us, it's bankruptcy in a war that, were a true accounting taken, no doubt has cost multiple trillions already, along with the deaths and debilitation of thousands of soldiers.

The other day, I read that one of the military's consultants estimated that if the war ended now, the cost of caring for U.S. soldiers only from here on out - their medical and psychological and other benefits - would run $300 to 600 Billion (that's a B).

We owe them, no question.

But Bush wants to squander even that on making sure that oil companies get to keep record profits on Iraq, because that is also built into Bush's "surge" plan. We're selling Iraq's fuel to energy companies who get to keep the profits rather than the Iraqi people.

So don't buy any bullshit about this being about democracy, or our troops, or the freedom and democracy of the American people.

It's - beyond Bush's ego and his "legacy" - all about two oil men, Bush and Cheney, serving their own masters: Shell, BP, Exxon-Mobil, et al.

The headlines right now say that opposition to Bush's plan does nothing but grows. As well it should.