Defense Contractors Doing Well Under Bush

It's hard to find anyone who is benefitting from Bush's reckless incompetence in Iraq. Not the Sunnis. Not the Shiites. Certainly not the American people.

We cannot forget that Bush is also thinking of regime change in Iran. Only the delusional can believe that a regime change in Iran will somehow, miraculously, go better than regime change in Iraq. But, if nothing else, Bush is taking care of the defense contractors; here's the story from Farah Stockman of the Boston Globe:

Pentagon officials involved with the group intend to ask Congress as early as February to increase funding for transfers of military hardware to allies in the Persian Gulf and to accelerate plans for joint military activities. The request, which is still being formulated, is expected to include but not be limited to more advanced-missile defense systems and early-warning radar to detect and prevent Iranian missile strikes.

"There is the perception in the Gulf that Iran is really on the rise," said Emile El-Hokayem, research fellow at the Stimpson Center, a Washington-based think tank. "Washington wants to prepare for a potential show down."

So we're talking tens of billions of dollars more for Bush's fiasco. Oh, and billions more for his friends as well.

If Bush continues with this nonsense, we clearly have a constitutional crisis. It's time to rein Mr. Bush in. It's already bad enough that the war in Iraq is being continued largely to protect Bush's political 'legacy' or, perhaps, just his bruised ego. We need some serious accounting and serious correction. The report by the Iraq Study Group was clearly a healthy step in that direction, but if Bush insists on more of his recklessness, more concrete steps will have to be taken by Congress to deal with the Bush Administration.