From The New York Times, 7/6/07:
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/opinion/06krugman.html?hp
Sacrifice Is for Suckers
By PAUL KRUGMAN
On this Fourth of July, President Bush compared the Iraq war to the
Revolutionary War, and called for “more patience, more courage and
more sacrifice.”
Unfortunately, it seems that nobody asked the obvious question:
“What sacrifices have you and your friends made, Mr. President?”
On second thought, there would be no point in asking that question.
In Mr. Bush’s world, only the little people make sacrifices.
You see, the Iraq war, although Mr. Bush insists that it’s part of a
Global War on Terror™, a fight to the death between good and evil,
isn’t like America’s other great wars — wars in which the wealthy
shared the financial burden through higher taxes and many members of
the elite fought for their country.
This time around, Mr. Bush celebrated Mission Accomplished by cutting
tax rates on dividends and capital gains, while handing out huge
no-bid contracts to politically connected corporations.
And in the four years since, as the insurgency Mr. Bush initially
taunted with the cry of “Bring them on” has claimed the lives of
thousands of Americans and left thousands more grievously wounded, the
children of the elite — especially the Republican elite — have been
conspicuously absent from the battlefield.
The Bushies, it seems, like starting fights, but they don’t believe in
paying any of the cost of those fights or bearing any of the risks.
Above all, they don’t believe that they or their friends should face
any personal or professional penalties for trivial sins like
distorting intelligence to get America into an unnecessary war, or
totally botching that war’s execution.
The Web site Think Progress has a summary of what happened to the men
behind the war after we didn’t find W.M.D., and weren’t welcomed as
liberators:
“The architects of war: Where are they now?”
To read that summary is to be awed by the comprehensiveness and
generosity of the neocon welfare system.
Even Paul Wolfowitz, who managed the rare feat of messing up not one
but two high-level jobs, has found refuge at the American Enterprise
Institute.
Which brings us to the case of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr.
The hysteria of the neocons over the prospect that Mr. Libby might
actually do time for committing perjury was a sight to behold.
In an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal titled “Fallen
Soldier,” Fouad Ajami of Johns Hopkins University cited the soldier’s
creed:
“I will never leave a fallen comrade.”
He went on to declare that “Scooter Libby was a soldier in your — our
— war in Iraq.”
Ah, yes.
Shuffling papers in an air-conditioned Washington office is exactly
like putting your life on the line in Anbar or Baghdad.
Spending 30 months in a minimum-security prison, with a comfortable
think-tank job waiting at the other end, is exactly like having half
your face or both your legs blown off by an I.E.D.
What lay behind the hysteria, of course, was the prospect that for the
very first time one of the people who tricked America into war, then
endangered national security yet again in the effort to cover their
tracks, might pay some price.
But Mr. Ajami needn’t have worried.
Back when the investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s
identity began, Mr. Bush insisted that if anyone in his administration
had violated the law, “that person will be taken care of.”
Now we know what he meant.
Mr. Bush hasn’t challenged the verdict in the Libby case, and other
people convicted of similar offenses have spent substantial periods of
time in prison.
But Mr. Libby goes free.
Oh, and don’t fret about the fact that Mr. Libby still had to pay a
fine.
Does anyone doubt that his friends will find a way to pick up the tab?
Mr. Bush says that Mr. Libby’s punishment remains “harsh” because his
reputation is “forever damaged.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Bush employs, as a deputy national security adviser,
none other than Elliott Abrams, who pleaded guilty to unlawfully
withholding information from Congress in the Iran-contra affair.
Mr. Abrams was one of six Iran-contra defendants pardoned by Mr.
Bush’s father, who was himself a subject of the special prosecutor’s
investigation of the scandal.
In other words, obstruction of justice when it gets too close to home
is a family tradition.
And being a loyal Bushie means never having to say you’re sorry.
________________________________________________________
Harry
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