The Handbasket has left the station

"We’re in the express elevator to Hell, baby..." Bill Paxton "ALIENS"

The real "surge" test is already underway in Iraq and all is strangley quiet on the Middle East front. I suspect it’s a false calm, but the Bushies are smiling in anticipation of telling the Dems "we told you so". I doubt they’ll have that opportunity, however, despite the negative Senate vote on Saturday (which the Reps are crowing about).

It looks like all Hell will break out before a week is up. Afghanistan is slowly reverting to the Taliban, Putin is giving speeches attacking U.S.policy and threatening to start a new cold war...which Bushies seem to relish!, and Russia, China and India are getting together for chats about challenging U.S.hegemonic worldwide power, perhaps by more heavily positioning petro investments in Euros instead of greenbacks.

The U.S. can’t and won’t win in Iraq, but Bus is sure going to sacrifice whatever troops he feels are necessary to "give it the old college try"...cheerleading all the way to Hades with Dark Lord Cheney as his tutor and mentor.

The Republicans don’t want to spell it out, but that road to Hell is paved with gold bricks...and they don’t seem to mind the risks as long as the wealth just keeps accumulating! Since the war began over 19 BILLION DOLLARS has gone down the rathole. The claim is mismanagement and carelessness, overpricing, etc. but I think we all know what really happened. A cotery of slimeballs from contractors to U.S. Congressmen to Iraqi government officials got their slimey hands on all that easy loot...and by gum the U.S.Congress isnt’ going to do a damned thing about it!

One thing at the end is certain. The war needs to continue. Not to win (that’s Bush’s lie), but to rake in more of that lucre for those in the position to grab it. War profiteers and pirates.

Arrrrgh.