It’s been three long years since the Bush administration proclaimed, “mission ac-complished” in arguably the grandest photo op ever staged by an American president. The commander-in-chief made his bold assertion moments after landing aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in May of 2003.
Riding shotgun, the president swooped down onto the carrier deck aboard a Lockheed S-3 Viking fighter jet, then strutted onto a waiting podium (still clad in what must have felt like an alien flight suit) and gave voice to the bravado that has so characterized his tenure in office.
“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended,” the president announced confidently. “In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”
Unfortunately, the U.S. armed forces and the insurgents they face aren’t living in the same world as the president.
Over the past three years and five months since the president proclaimed an end to major combat operations in Iraq, 2,663 American servicemen and women have lost their lives (That’s 95 percent of the total fatalities suffered in Iraq).
On top of that, 20,090 of the 20,687 U.S. casualties occurred after the mission was supposed to be accomplished (a whopping 97 percent).
Then there is the monetary cost of the war. Most administration officials downplayed the potential costs of war, estimating that at the very most, the price tag would be around $50 billion to $60 billion.
Only one man in the Bush administration had the courage to give an estimate that came close to the actual cost.
Lawrence B. Lindsey, Bush’s assistant on economic policy, predicted that the cost of the Iraq war could reach $200 billion. He was summarily fired for making such an outrageous prediction.
Yet even Lindsey’s assessment was a far cry from reality. The actual cost of the war in Iraq has surpassed $338 billion, and is growing at a rate of around $20 million per day.
Just how detached from reality does the administration have to be to make such gross miscalculations? You would think the men responsible for putting U.S. troops in Iraq would have a slightly better handle on the facts.
Yet in the dream world of Bush and the gaggle of sycophants who parrot his talking points, everything is absolutely peachy. Just stay the course and victory is right around the corner.
Victory is so close in fact, that the administration has already planned the victory party and set aside $20 million to make it happen. The funds are specifically earmarked ‘for commemoration of success’ in Iraq and supporters hope V-I Day can be celebrated in Washington as early as next year.
Apparently, the occupants of the White House are determined to look on the bright side of every casket that returns to America (it helps when you never attend any of the funerals).
For them, spending a mere $20 million probably seems like a real bargain, especially when it can be used to maintain the bubble of unreality that separates them from the front lines.

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