Of course on this side of the Atlantic our own troop of strutting roosters are lying their way around a different set of circles. If Bush had known that the Iraqi people might resent our occupation enough to keep killing our young troops he would have done what? Well he might have tried harder to make the foreign nationals bear the brunt of the occupation. He still might do that unless it costs him too much pride and reduces his macho image too much. Then there is the mundane fact that the cost of the peace in Iraq is breaking the bank at home enough for the President to declare an emergency and reduce raises to the bureaucrats who run the real government. Of course we needed those tax breaks soooo badly that it became an emergency infusion of cash into the hands of those who will have to lend our government that same money in order to keep it solvent, didn't it? The Pentagon tried to help by reducing the salaries paid to the troops in the field but this administration can smell a political liability a mile off and stopped that effort before it really got started.

Then there is the Problem of the yen Japan and China and others have for undervalued currencies which helps keep our balance of payments upside down. Now our upside down balance of payments amounts to a huge number, almost equal to our projected annual deficits for the next decade. Is this just a transfer of wealth into the hands of the investors abroad who are expected to fund those deficits with loans that return that cash to our government coffers? How long can we run a deficit in both areas of our economy before those dollars become worthless? No one in this Administration has an answer for that question so far. Not even a good lie has passed their lips on that issue to date. Meanwhile the American People are being fed a heavy diet of patriotism to make up for the job losses inherent in these irredeemably stupid fiscal policies.

The process of midwifing the birth of democracy in Iraq is proving more painful than our fair haired leaders thought possible. The cultural values of this Administration are proving to be the most parochial since the turn of the prior century. That is since the phrase "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" stopped reflecting our national policy. The real fact of the current Arabian wars as composed by the neocons and their followers is that we may have to kill a lot of Arabs to make them accept our version of democracy. That is obviously acceptable to the neocons. In fact they would probably much rather do it with a remote controlled weapons system or small "clean" nukes that would kill them and leave the oil intact. If anyone still thinks this is about democracy and not oil why are the oil pipelines being targeted by our enemies in Iraq? Because they know that hurts us more than we can admit; and not just because we depend on that oil to fund our little experiment in nation building.

The Iraqi's know we need the oil and that we will pay for it. But it absolutely has to keep flowing in order for this massive international financial apparatus that we sit on top of to sustain itself. We are fighting wars keep us from the dark days yet to come. The dark days of no more oil are going to be faced by our children or grandchildren regardless of the outcome in Iraq. We are spending lives and effort on sustaining the eventually unsustainable oil based economy of production. That is the economy we have based our future on, to the detriment of other more viable options. Witness our helplessness in the face of one day of blackouts. Do we know how to live without oil, or as much electricity as we want, any time, all the time? We will have a hard time transitioning to a new economic base unless we start to develop alternatives as our option of choice. The last time we had a national policy of promoting alternatives was the Carter administration. He was the only President since WWII to reduce our dependence on imported oil. Meanwhile we, our children and our grandchildren face an Iraqi and Arabian Nightmare out of all proportion to our real need for oil. It all comes down to who knew they were lying when they made the case for the war in Iraq. It is possible that neither Bush nor Blair knew that they lied. If that is true then they both ought to be fired for being so easily fooled. God bless and keep you all safe in these revolting times.