More Iraq Billions....

As former Sen. Everett Dirksen once quipped.... "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."

The Bush administration's Defense Department has taken that thought to extremes that would have given Dirksen economic vertigo. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is seeking an additional $42.3 billion to fund the Iraq and Afghanistan war, bringing the total request for 2008 to nearly $190 billion. That's nearly $16 billion a month.

Yes, that's real money.

Money not being spent on domestic needs.... infrastructure, education, regulation of imports.... too many needs to enumerate. All will go begging while the military-industrial complex continues to siphon away our economic lifeblood.

Some of the additional expenditures can be justified for the protection of our troops.... $5.3 billion for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles. What can't be justified is Bush's lack of a plan to resolve the hemorrhaging of billions into an endless horizon.... caught in Iraq's bloody tribal civil war while The Decider shifts his end game with each fumble of his rationale for "staying the course."

If this budget passes, it will bring to $800 billion the total approximate cost for Bush's reckless Iraq adventure. Billions here, billions there and pretty soon it's a trillion....