$80 billion here, $80 billion there--pretty soon you're talking real money!

Actually, after reading The Creature From Jekyll Island, I don't think there is such a thing as "real money." There's just debt. And aWol wants to make a whole bunch more of it to waste on his horrid wars.

From AP:

The Bush administration plans to announce Tuesday it will request about $80 billion more for this year's costs of fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, congressional aides said Monday.

The request would push the total provided so far for those wars and for U.S. efforts against terrorism elsewhere in the world to more than $280 billion since the first money was provided shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, airliner attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

That would be nearly half the $613 billion the United States spent for World War I or the $623 billion it expended for the Vietnam War, when the costs of those conflicts are translated into 2005 dollars.

And what are we getting for all this money debt? Well, the destruction of Fallujah resulted in some 6000 killed and 200,000 refugees. Meanwhile, both the power AND the water are out in Baghdad. As Riverbend says, "Water is like peace- you never really know just how valuable it is until someone takes it away." Our handpicked thug sees Saddam's legacy not as appalling, but as a challenge. And the elections are on schedule, without, apparently, any independent outside observers. Oh, and Afghanistan is back in the opium business in a big way. That's what our $200 billion has gotten us so far, along with some 1500 dead Americans. Who knows what they can do with another $80 billion?

Of course, the Democrats are going to put up a fight:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Monday it was Congress' "highest responsibility" to provide the money that American troops need.

Actually, Nancy, all the money they need is airfare home. I'll repeat that Jon Stewart quote from last week: "Democrats: a moment of resistance, a lifetime of capitulation." Although word has it that this time John Kerry plans to vote AGAINST the $80 billion before he votes FOR it.