Status check-- the Middle East

[mburbank]

Even if the Neocons were right, (and I don't think they were, and even if I thought they might be I'd have to say that it's way too aerly to tell) look at the costs to get just these baby steps accomplished.

1,500 American lives and counting. Uncounted thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis dead, amounting to a US sponsored recruitkment drive for terrorists. An official state policy of agression. Unprecedented presidential power up to an including doing away with habeus corpus, allowing the executive branch to simply make people disapear. A plunge from a huge surplus to a record defficit. The declaration, and worse yet, acceptance of a war on a concept, commiting us to a permanent state of war and permanent war powers to the executive branch. Vital damage to the system of checks and balances. The rejection of the geneva convention. Refusal to officially reject torture. The exportation of uncharged prisoners to countries we know will torture them, including official enemies like Syria. A free pass for for the man most responsible for the black market in nuclear weapons technology. etc. etc. etc.