There are times when I just get tired of talking about Iraq. This war which is not really a war just keeps going on and on and on. The news comes in 2 flavors – awful and bad.
Today White House press secretary Dana Perino had a very interesting response to the CBO’s figure of $2.4 trillion price tag if the war continues for 10 years assuming that we downsize the force to around 50,000. She said who knows. That number doesn’t really matter. Spending on the global war on terror is an investment in our own security. This is something that the President is committed in prioritizing in the budget. What? That’s a crock. The War in the Iraq hasnever been in the budget. Instead it has always come up in supplemental spending requests.
So, the game that the administration is paying is that it will say any big number is wildly out of bounds. It is too far into the future for us to guess. That’s been our problem. If we would have been told from the start that taking down Iraq would cost $500 billion and over 3,000 American troops AND after spending that much money we still wouldn’t have a stable Iraq, how many Americans would have gone for it? I would bet only a couple of neocons and that’s it.
Chris Matthews talks to Rep. Obey Chairman of the budget and finance committee.
