I just saw Bay Buchanan (Pat's sister, for those who don't know) on CNN speaking to the question of the war's and Aftermath's cost. She said something like, well, if we're going to go in there and get rid of tyrants and reform the region and set up democracy its just unfair to also ask us to pay for it all. Some of these other countries will just have to step up and pay something. We should tell President Bush to cut the foreign aid, we can't be giving money to Turkey and to Israel and to other countries in the region while we we're solving all their problems and be expected to pay the whole cost too.
It ran something like that, anyway. I think I captured the flavor and tone of it, and the major "ideas" she conveyed if not the literal words.
Just amazing, the though processes of people who either believe or pretend to believe that the US can go in and impose a form of govt on other countries. The usual examples given of successful doing that--Germany, Japan, S. Korea--were so unique in that they were unified cultures prior to our entry, not to mention devastated on the battlefield. The examples don't hold very well in the mideast, especially in a place like Iraq.
