Abject Failure

I'm supposed to be wallowing in my own self-pity, like any self-respecting tortured artist. But I don't have time for that, thanks to all these dumb-shits who keep piling on. Stupid Sons-of-Bitches! So all I can muster is righteous indignation. To wit: the NYT reported Sunday that some of the most highly-touted Iraqi reconstruction "success stories," such as the maternity hospital, are actually crumbling masses of rubble, and that one expert remarked flatly that reconstruction is "doomed to failure." Kinda makes you all warm and fuzzy inside, don't it?

Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Injustice, Solomon Grundy says shit like "Why is winning in Iraq so important? [Because] in my view and others, al Qaeda has made Iraq the central front in their war with us." Yeah, right. Fact: Al Qaeda did not operate in Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion. We practically invited those jackasses into the country by fucking it up so royally! Hell, that was exactly what al Qaeda wanted: to immerse the West in a polarizing conflict with Islam. Mission Accomplished! Iraq is now the perfect terrorist recruiting station and training ground. Well done, Bush Administration! Goddamn Legion of Doom motherfuckers.

Here's another one that makes my head spin: wonks keep calling the current (now vetoed) budget bill on Capitol Hill "funding for the troops." Can't play politics with funding for the troops. Let's put the fun back in funding for the troops! Blah blah blah. Now I haven't read the bill, but I'd bet real money that our soldiers' pay comes out of the Pentagon's base budget. It damn well better, or I might have to become a tax-protester. But whatever. We all know that this funding bill is for the war, not the troops. And there's a big fucking difference between the two.