Show Me The Money

by digby

Why is this not a Democratic argument?

By year’s end, the cost for both conflicts since Sept. 11, 2001, is projected to reach more than $800 billion. Iraq alone has cost the United States more in inflation-adjusted dollars than the Gulf War and the Korean War and will probably surpass the Vietnam War by the end of next year, according to the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

From what I gather, instead of using this to persuade voters that Republicans are both economic and national security miscreants, the congress is going to pass Bush’s funding requests as fast as they can. I guess it’s unpatriotic to question the cost of the war or even ask just what in the hell they are spending on this money on. The new thinking seems to be that not only is there a prohibition about cutting the funds, they have to give the president a blank check and are not allowed to ask any questions. The Democrats are convinced that they have no say in national security matters. Or they actually agree with the Republicans.

But what’s really neat about this is that the failure of the war will be blamed on them anyway. It won’t matter that they rubber stamped every crackpot Iraq strategy and signed off on the most expensive war in history. (This week they even went on record helping Bush begin the drive to Iran!) This entire “war” has been a Vietnam mulligan from the get and the Right will very likely write this part as a slightly, shopworn sequel of the standard “how the hippies ruined everything” storyline

Rick Perlstein has written an important analysis of this phenomenon in this review of two important wing nut tomes on the Vietnam War. Although these books are in complete contradiction with one another, they are revered on the right for one reason: they posit that we would have “won” the war if only the left hadn’t ruined everything. The contradictory details in the two books are irrelevant since they come to the same conclusion.

As Rick points out, this is actually a psychological necessity on the part of a right wing that screws up everything it touches and is incapable of admitting its failure:

Conservatism’s cherished fantasy of American omnipotence has died once again, this time in the sands of Iraq, and the grieving process has begun. But conservatives mourn differently from you and me. They begin with denial, anger and bargaining, just like everyone else. And that’s where they stay–forever paralyzed by a petulant refusal to acknowledge their fantasy’s passing, a simple inability to process reality.

I’m not sure how it’s going to work this time, but so far they seem to quite successful in persuading the battered Dems that if they’ll just stop provoking them, the manly man won’t be forced to beat them up anymore. You know how well that always works out.

H/T to my old pal Kevin K from catch.com who is blogging again at a new (old) blog called Rumproast.

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