KRUGMAN HITS ANOTHER ONE OUT OF THE PARK-- BUT, OF COURSE, WE ALREADY ALL KNEW THAT THE BUSH REGIME LIES AND LIES AND LIES

Today's TIMES column by Paul Krugman contrasts a series of quotes made by prominent players in the Iraqi catastrophe. Krugman obviously wrote it with the idea of dominating the DWT Quote of the Day Column for the next week or so. But, wisely, the QOTDC has chosen to pass this over to me, knowing I could never resist the juxtaposition between war hawk Joe Lieberman and the more dovish Tom DeLay:

"It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be the commander in chief for three more critical years, and that in matters of war, we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril." Senator Joseph Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, Dec. 6, 2005


"I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now." Representative Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas, on the campaign against Slobodan Milosevic, April 28, 1999.

The Rupert Murdoch/Fox News comparison is telling too:


"The greatest thing to come out of [invading Iraq] for the world economy... would be $20 a barrel for oil." Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation (which owns Fox News), February 2003

"Oil Touches Record $78 on Mideast Conflict." Headline on Fox News online, July 14, 2006.

Then there's the stuff we've heard over and over again... you know the stuff that sent Bush's approval ratings into the 40's, 30's and finally the 20's. "The administration’s top budget official estimated today that the cost of a war with Iraq could be in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion," saying that "earlier estimates of $100 billion to $200 billion in Iraq war costs by Lawrence B. Lindsey, Mr. Bush’s former chief economic adviser, were too high." The New York Times, Dec. 31, 2002. Instead of claiming that the war and occupation will eventually cost as much as 2 trillion dollars, Krugman just uses a very modest quote from the Congressional Budget Office from last week:

"According to C.B.O.’s estimates, from the time U.S. forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, $290 billion has been allocated for activities in Iraq... Additional costs over the 2007-2016 period would total an estimated $202 billion under the first [optimistic] scenario, and $406 billion under the second one.” Congressional Budget Office, July 13, 2006.

A couple others the QOTDC might have considered over the course of the week:

"Peacekeeping requirements in Iraq might be much lower than historical experience in the Balkans suggests. There's been none of the record in Iraq of ethnic militias fighting one another that produced so much bloodshed and permanent scars in Bosnia." Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense and now president of the World Bank, Feb. 27, 2003

"West Baghdad is no stranger to bombings and killings, but in the past few days all restraint has vanished in an orgy of 'ethnic cleansing.' Shia gunmen are seeking to drive out the once-dominant Sunni minority and the Sunnis are forming neighborhood posses to retaliate. Mosques are being attacked. Scores of innocent civilians have been killed, their bodies left lying in the streets." The Times of London, July 14, 2006

"Earlier this week, I traveled to Baghdad to visit the capital of a free and democratic Iraq." President Bush, June 17, 2006

"People are doing the same as [in] Saddam's time and worse... These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things." Ayad Allawi, Mr. Bush's choice as Iraq's first post-Saddam prime minister, November 2005

"Iraq's new government has another able leader in Speaker Mashhadani... He rejects the use of violence for political ends. And by agreeing to serve in a prominent role in this new unity government, he's demonstrating leadership and courage." President Bush, May 22, 2006.

"Some people say 'we saw you beheading, kidnappings and killing. In the end we even started kidnapping women who are our honor.' These acts are not the work of Iraqis. I am sure that he who does this is a Jew and the son of a Jew." Mahmoud Mashhadani, speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, July 13, 2006.

"My fellow citizens, not only can we win the war in Iraq, we are winning the war in Iraq." President Bush, Dec. 18, 2005.

"I think I would answer that by telling you I don't think we're losing." Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, when asked whether we're winning in Iraq, July 14, 2006.

Ad we'll close with a contrast between the real power behind Bush's throne, the architect of the attack on Iraq and the occupation, Dick Cheney, and a blurb in this week's NEWSWEEK Magazine.


"Regime change in Iraq would bring about a number of benefits for the region... Extremists in the region would have to rethink their strategy of jihad. Moderates throughout the region would take heart, and our ability to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process would be enhanced." Vice President Dick Cheney, Aug. 26, 2002.

"Bush-- The world is coming unglued before his eyes. His naïve dreams are a Wilsonian disaster." Newsweek Conventional Wisdom Watch, July 24, 2006 edition.