SADDAM: THE $1 BILLION OFFER

Saddam offered to leave Iraq in exchange for $1 billion. Bush himself said that Saddam could leave the country and the invasion would be called off (no one took that seriously, but still, he said it).

We've spent over 500 times that on our invasion and killed over a million people and lost tens of thousands in deaths and injuries (the cost of which will be in the billions as time goes on).

9/11 Every Day For Over 10 Years

Many will dispute the 1 million casualty estimate. They will do so because it's a conscience-pricking number. That number of deaths, proportionally speaking, is equivalent to a 9/11 casualty rate EVERY DAY in Iraq for over 10 years.

But suppose you argue that the 1 million casualty figure is impossibly high. OK, let's cut it in half--that's an equivalent 9/11 every day for 5 years in Iraq. Or take a fifth of that--an equivalent 9/11 every day for one year (this illuminating device stolen directly from Arthur Silber).

Support Our Troops--They're Fighting For Our Slavery

So Saddam offered to leave if we'd pay him 1/500 of what we have ended up paying. SO FAR.

But they turned him down. Because the war wasn't about bringing democracy to Iraq. It was about extending the arm of the corporatocracy and using the war as an excuse to increase the power of the government at home while decreasing our civil liberties.

And now that we're in Iraq, we'll be there for decades. They aren't building the largest embassy in the history of the world just for shits and giggles, you know. They're building it to keep us in endless war, which is "patriot" code for endless slavery.

NEW BALANCE?

Of power, that is? It's beginning to look like we may get our wish--finally, a check on the Bush adminstration.

As I was watching TV, looking at msnbc.com, etc., this thought occurred to me--before they off Saddam, could somebody let him say whether or not he had any links to al Qaida or whether he had any nuclear weapons? Wouldn't he be honest about it now that he has nothing left to lose? Just a thought...

GOP Senate: No Saddam-Al Qaeda Link

Here's a link to the report done by Republican chairman Pat Roberts' committee(the conclusions about Iraq and al Qaeda start on p. 108 of 151)

I found it curious that the report kept referring to the "postwar" period. So even though Bush reminded us just a day or two ago that we're still "at war," the Senate acknowledges the truth--that we are now in an occupation, not a war.

We won the war. Yay! Now let's quit the occupation. There is no shame or dishonor in the end of an occupation.

Something to think about as we come to the fifth anniversary of 9/11...