New at Reason

Tim Cavanaugh | July 19, 2005

An Iraqi cutup, an expensive war, and a bucketful of bombs, in Reason Express.

Comments

|7.19.05 @ 12:15PM|#

Shia in the south, Sunni in the middle, and Kurdish in the north. Would this be such a bad outcome?

The democratic thing to do is to put this question to vote in Iraq. Democracy!

Adam|7.19.05 @ 12:23PM|#

Another big strike against the current approach in Iraq is its great cost. Sooner or later the U.S. will be forced to consider spending less money on the war effort. Spending somewhere between $5 and $8 billion a month is simply not sustainable year after year.

We can spend $500 billion on "highway" pork barrel projects but can't swing national defense? Yeah, right.

|7.19.05 @ 12:29PM|#

Those highway appropriations are for projects that will last several years and which are at least hypothetically investments that will generate greater tax revenue in the future. (Which is not to say I support them, but there is a distinction between splurging for a $10,000 kitchen remodelling job, which may not be necessary, but will add some value to the house, and spending the same $10,000 on a trip to Vegas,)

|7.19.05 @ 12:47PM|#

"We can spend $500 billion on "highway" pork barrel projects but can't swing national defense? Yeah, right"

Wait - I thought we were talking about Iraq? What do highways or national defense have to do with that?

Oh, wait - our expenditures in Iraq are for nation-building, and therefore the money is going to build highways over there? I still don't get how your comparison is relevant...

|7.19.05 @ 12:52PM|#

Weren't US national highways originally built primarily for Homeland Security reasons?

Guess there were a lot of Adams back in them Eisenhower days. When dealing with these Adamses, the only way to get at their wallet is to give'em a flag to wave first.

|7.19.05 @ 12:56PM|#

SR,
I think the Bush Admin's idea is just that -- a few hundred billion (or more) spent in Iraq will pay huge dividends later on; an investment in democracy that will have positive benefits throughout the Middle East in the long run.
And it's not like the 5 to 8 billion per month just disappears; it does create some jobs and in turn generates some tax revenue.
(I mention these things knowing the risk I might sound like a Republican -- ugh.)

|7.19.05 @ 1:01PM|#

Hey, did anyone scroll down to the quote of the week? It seems the wolf population of Europe is making a comeback.

Wolves Threaten Europe

Wolves disappeared from eastern Germany about 1850. Suddenly they are back. The animals moved into the overgrown hectares of artillery ranges and military exercise grounds abandoned by the Soviet forces in Saxony.

The wolves feed off deer and are flourishing; two packs have already formed and biologists say a third is taking shape.

The human population of eastern Germany, by contrast, is dwindling.

Almost 1 million have left for western Germany since unification. Villages are dying out. One community, Horno, has been reduced to two people.

Frank Morschel, of the German branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature, said: "In the long run, we can count on wolves repopulating much of eastern Germany - as long as humans let it happen."

Wolves are on the move throughout Europe and the reason is always the same; they sense a change in human behaviour.

I, for one, welcome our resurgent lupine overlords.

|7.19.05 @ 1:03PM|#

a few hundred billion (or more) spent in Iraq will pay huge dividends later on; an investment in democracy that will have positive benefits throughout the Middle East in the long run.

Egad! Enronopotamia! Better scrutinize the books on this one, boys!

Should Iraq now be called Nasdaq?

|7.19.05 @ 1:29PM|#

Another opportunity to propose my ingenious plan to establish a lasting peace in the Middle East for a bargain price!

Give a powerful automatic weapon with plenty of ammunition to any woman who is required to wear a veil by law, local custom, or family pressure.

I used to make that suggestion as a really bad joke--and not an entirely original one, either. Sometimes, though, I just wonder....