by James Glaser
March 12, 2003

The other night when President Bush spoke to the nation and had a press conference he was asked what this war on Iraq would cost. Well he side stepped that question by saying we would have to wait for a "Supplemental." That would be a supplemental budget request to the Congress to pay the bill for the war, After the Fact.

Even this President cannot be so foolish as to send over a quarter of a million troops and their equipment half way around the world and not ask for some real cost numbers before we do it. I think every American has a right to those estimates before we start this war. Over eight million Americans are out of work, Washington is back to writing rubber checks again, and this is our money George is spending. Supplemental my ass, I want to know what this war is going to cost and who is going to make the big money off this war.

The more I think about this press conference by President Bush, the more I believe that the whole thing was a sham and not only are these affairs choreographed, but scripted too. It has been reported that some senior reporters like Helen Thomas were not invited because they won't play the game and could ask the President some real hard questions that he wouldn't know about before hand.

Maybe you are one of those people that think President Bush and American politics are all on the up and up. Maybe you think, just because billions and billions of dollars are on the line and the lives of thousands of both American and Iraqi citizens are at stake, no one would corrupt our political system and have a scripted press conference to give the President and his policies a boost the night before an important United Nations Security Council meeting.

Well, I can think of a few questions that no one else thought of or at least didn't get White House approval for. Like how do you liberate people that you have killed Mister President? Or how about this one, "Mister President, what are we paying these countries that are backing us? Maybe some one should have asked why all the names of American companies that sold weapons and material to Saddam Hussein were removed from Iraq's 12,000 page report and those names are now a State Secret?

On the question of liberating dead people, just like the cost analysis on the war, I am sure the Pentagon has come up with some preliminary estimates of just how many civilians will likely die with our attack on Iraq. Wouldn't that be useful information for good Christians like we are, to decide if this war was really moral and just?

I can just imagine that George Bush has visions of victory, with praise and accolades bestowed by the world at his feet. I am sure he can see masses cheering his name and the head of Saddam Hussein brought before him on a silver plate, much like some Hollywood biblical epic.

The sad thing is that this war with Iraq is not some movie, but the real thing and all the women and children, all the senior citizens, and all the orphans from our last war that we kill in this one will really be dead and they will never get to see what life could have been like, because George Bush decided that their deaths were the price Iraq had to pay for America to liberate their nation. And once again the American citizen will be able to shake his head and say, "if only we had known."