Top Ten things Bush won't Tell you About the State of the Nation
1. US economic growth during the last quarter was an anemic 1.1%, the worst in 3 years.
2. The US inflation rate has jumped to 3.4 percent, the highest rate in 5 years.
3. The number of daily attacks in Iraq rose from 52 in December, 2004 to 77 in December, 2005.
4. A third of US veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, some 40,000 persons, exhibit at least some signs of mental health disorders. Some 14,000 were treated for drug dependencies, and 11,000 for depression.
5. Increases in American consumer spending come from borrowing.
6. The $320 - $400 bilion deficits run by the Bush administration may push up the cost of mortgages and loans.
7. 58% of Americans think Bush is painting Iraq as rosier than it is. A majority thinks we should never have invaded the country.
8. The US military is at a breaking point.
9. In fact, The US and Iran are tacit allies in Iraq.
10. Mor e money would be needed to finish the US reconstruction projects begun in Iraq.
posted by Juan Cole @ 1/31/2006 12:30:00 AM
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9 Comments:
Juan,
Apparently, the US is expereincing an economic crises. Do you think their situation will improve or worsen in the near future? And what about the unemployment rates; are they increasing or decreasing?
Concerning your 9th point and the US/Iran tacit alliance; it's a possibility you are right to point at. However I don't think that the US is seizing that opportunity.
I was rather surprised to hear this morning that Russia and China agreed to bring the case of Iran's nuclear activities in front of the UN Security Council. Well, it doesn't say that they will all agree on economic sanctions toward Iran.. Nevertheless, this is intriguing, are we heading toward a kind of new Yalta agreement concerning energy ressources ?
What about the recent clashes concerning Russian gaz deliveries to the former USSR republics ? Indirectly, they hurt the EU as well. So this may have been a way for Russia to assert her power in the Energy game, right when energy shares are negotiated behind the scene.
I find all this verbal escalation against Iran highly alarming. It smells of war in the whole ME.
One of the things Bush will talk about, of course, is staying the course... You know, like the guy who is horribly lost but insists that if he keeps driving long enough the road will sort itself out...
My real concern at this point is the stance against Iran, and that Bush might very well be playing good cop till the 2006 elections are safely out of the way... His one major success has been in convincing the press, and that doesn't take much, that Iran is pursuing an advanced nuclear weapons program...
And the proof for that is - since when did the U.S. news media need proof to advocate war hysteria?
But if you do need proof, I am sure there are plenty of American Shahs waiting in the corridors of power, to present long winded testimonies on the evil Iranians (didn't they also throw babies out of incubators?) and how they could launch a WMD attack on America and its allies (within 45 minutes?).
Remember the Maine, and to hell with Spain... And never mind how we got there in the first place.
Don't forget personal savings was in the negative this year (-0.5%).
Recent economic reports put economic growth at a "strong" 3.5% for 2005. However, the annual budget deficit will reach 400+ billion dollars or around 16% of expenditures. The annual interest paid on our accumulated national debt will end up being around 350 billion dollars for 2005—almost as much as we are borrowing each year! . . .
Re. Link in point 9. I agree that the main motivation for Iranian nuclear ambition is self-defence but I'm not sure that better regional security would contain the Iranian nuclear programme. The Iranians are looking for long term security and they may well judge any improvement in relations with Washington as a temporary lull. From their point of view, there's never been a better time to build a nuclear weapon. They might well take the view that it's now or never. And choose now. They may already have done so.
If they have, and that's a big if obviously, it's hard to see what could be done to stop them. The military option would be disasterous and the US army doesn't appear to have the capacity to carry it out in any event (not without the draft anyway, and that won't be happening in this (election) year). Targeted airstrikes are of limited value in a country the size of Iran unless you have very specific, very accurate intelligence (and that's not something the US and British governments are familiar with apparently).
The extraordinary hysteria expressed by some at the prospect of a Nuclear Iran is troubling. Nevertheless, no-one wants more yet nuclear proliferation, especially in the turbulent Middle East. The irony is that a Nuclear Iran may be the enduring legacy of the war to find non-existent WMD in Iraq. Irony doesn't seem a big enough word to describe it actually.
I'm curious what Bush meant when he said: "We have entered a great ideological conflict we did nothing to invite." Does he buy Huntington's thesis on the "clash of civilizations" or is he alluding to something else here?
You forgot to mention the city of New Orleans.
I'm just thrilled that he finally came out against "human-animal [sic] hybrids."
This from the man who today declared that he saw his role as "Educator in Chief."
God help us.
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