May 04, 2003
V.F.W.
"We're all veterans of a fucked-up world" sang the Dead Milkmen on their brilliant 1985 platter Big Lizard In My Backyard.
If ever there were any doubts, this side-bar, taken from the current issue of the (also brilliant) Left Business Observer, should remove them.
Lightness In the early days of the war, when things weren't going so well for the "coalition", it was said that the force was too light. But after the sandstorm cleared and the snipers were mowed down, that alleged lightness became a widely praised virtue. But that force was light only by American standards: 300,000 troops; an endless rain of Tomahawks, JDAMs, and MOABs; thousands of vehicles, from Humvees to Abrams tanks; hundreds of aircraft, from Apaches to B-1s; several flotillas of naval support -- and enormous quanitities of expensive petroleum products. It takes five gallons of fuel just to start an Abrams tank, and after that it gets a mile per gallon. And filling one up is no bargain. Though the military buys fuel at a wholesale price of 84¢ a gallon, after all the expenses of getting it to the front lines are added in, the final cost is about $150 a gallon. That's a steal compared to Afghanistan, where the fuel is helicoptered in, pushing the cost to $600/gallon. Rummy's "lightness" is of the sort that only a $10 trillion economy can afford.
But as the rest of the ish makes clear (and the prognostications are now being echoed in the mainstream press by Roberts Reich and Kuttner), the economy can't afford Bush-onomics.
If the Democrats had something, anything to offer in alternative, we could be writing The Superbrain's epitaph right now.
Posted by Eddie Tews at May 4, 2003 09:02 PM
Comments
I love the U.N. so much. What a great body of people who have moral values much higher than those of us Americans. They are right to criticize the U.S. for allowing looting in Baghdad, because that kind of behavior could never be exhibited by members of the U.N. itself.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,449436,00.html
Seems this blog has got a lot of good points! Let the U.N. run the world, they obviously have the moral highground as demonstrated by the above link, and let these guys decide how to protect our country! Especially when they aren't affected by their actions or lack thereof! If the U.N. countries are wrong, they don't get hurt, so what's the rush? Alright, pacifism! It's especially good since if the U.N. holds everyone else accountable, no one can hold them accountable! I'm sure the great, fair and just International Criminal Court will quickly prosecute the above unlawful acts completely free of political biases! I think I see it now! And quoting a few Iraqis disliking the U.S. definitely shows a balanced view, because the other 25 million Iraqis must obviously feel exactly the same way as the ones that Eddie quoted! There possibly couldn't be ANY diversity of viewpoints because this blogger's arguments are so iron-clad!
No one is responding anymore to your articles Eddie because most activists have realized that they were more wrong than right and are regrouping, except the ones that don't get it, which seems to include you. -- Posted by: I love the U.N.! on May 5, 2003 10:47 AM
Interesting post $800 screwdrivers, $600 a gallon-and you can use a screwdriver over again. -- Posted by: barney gumble on May 6, 2003 04:12 PM