WTF Is It Now?!?

BOMBING FOR POLL NUMBERS
The economy is faltering, the stock market has tanked, and 'President' Bush's lame attempt at portraying himself as the champion of corporate responsibility has failed. Sounds like a good time to invade Iraq.

Yes, it's a cynical attitude to have. But we're dealing with cynical people in charge of our country and if bombing Iraq would give Bush a bump up in the opinion polls, they'd do it a minute - especially with the mid-term elections coming up in November.

The Bush administration has been shameless in using the "war" to distract Americans from taking a critical look at how the nation is being led off a cliff by a group of men who have shredded the Constitution and bled our economy dry for the benefit of themselves and their wealthy backers. The folks in Europe seem to be more sensitive to this than most Americans. Ever since the 2000 presidential election was stolen by the Republicans, Europeans have been aghast at the political and economic decision making by the Bush administration. After watching the fecklessness of Bush and his stunning lack of intelligence in economic and international affairs, foreign investors have been pulling their money out of the U.S. as fast as they can. In the past year, foreign purchases of U.S. stocks and bonds decreased 24 percent and direct investment has fallen 63 percent, according to Business Week. As a result, the dollar and the euro are now equal in value.

All this makes an attack on Iraq more likely. The deeper the economy sinks into recession - or worse - the more likely the Bush administration will resort to war to distract Americans from the spreading domestic chaos. I don't think it's a coincidence that the recent leaks from the Pentagon and the State Department regarding an invasion strategy for Iraq came as the corporate sleaze scandals picked up momentum in the press. - Randolph T. Holhut, reprinted at smirkingchimp.com (see link, left).