In a press conference on Sept. 26, chief liar-for-bush Scott McClellan
asserted that the $87 billion check the Bush mis-administration wants
Congress to put in its hot little hands, no questions asked, is "part
of a wartime supplemental to make sure our troops have the resources
they need to do their job, and to make sure we create a secure
environment for our troops to succeed." But when challenged about
whether it was really essential to the war on terrorism and our
soldiers to spend $54 million to study the Iraqi postal service and
another $9 million to introduce zip codes, he digressed into a truly
moronic rationalization. Here it is from his own lips (an obviously
prescripted talking point):

"Well, let me give you a little bit of history here. I think that if
you look back at America, our Constitutional Congress was organized in
Philadelphia in 1775 to establish an independent government. What was
one of the first actions that they worked to address? It was to deliver
the mail. Because the postal system that Congress created helped to
bring the new nation together, it helped support the growth of
commerce, and it helped ensure a free flow of ideas and information. So
look back to our own history and you can see how that's important to
building the institutions necessary for a democracy to succeed."

There are only a few minor problems with his ludicrous assertion.
Firstly, that was 228 years ago and communications have changed just a
wee bit since then. Among other things Iraq has phones, fax machines,
satellite tv, etc. Secondly, Iraq already has a postal service,
whereas, the US was largely starting over from scratch. McClellan even
admits that Iraq has a postal service, but tried to claim that that it
had suffered under, "under 30 years of neglect." Lacking specific
evidence on his part, one can only assume that the 30 years to which he
refers is the entire reign of Saddam. It is highly questionable that
the Iraqi postal service just automatically got bad under Saddam, even
if Saddam's priorities were elsewhere. Thirdly, try as I may, I cannot
find any reference to the founding fathers doing a computerized study
of our mail system or implementing a ZIP code system. Finally, it's
not clear that this money will really rejuvenate the entire Iraqi
postal service. It may only be an insignificant band aid when more
direct action could be taken. What's needed right now is probably
postal carriers with nerves of steel, rather than computerized studies
and american style zip codes. If the US were to leave any time soon,
as some people like Powell have advocated, then the systems we are
paying so dearly for will probably be thrown into chaos again and all
of this will be for naught.

The fact is that the proposed $63 million for the two postal programs
have absolutely nothing to do with the war on terror or supporting our
soldiers in the field. This is money that should come at some later
juncture, most appropriately from Iraqi oil revenues. It is certainly
not emergency money that is critical, since, if Iraq got along for 30
years without it, as he claims, they can certainly survive another
year. What does he plan to do, send them all junk mail to get them to
support the indefinite occupation of their country? I mean let's get
real here. McClellan's explanation here is ridiculous, even by the
standards of Washington spin. If a member of the Clinton
administration tried this kind of dodge then he or she would have been
crucified by the media. Here, we barely get a peep from the press.
Where is the outrage?