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The New York Times
Sacrifice Is for
Suckers
By PAUL KRUGMAN,
OP-ED COLUMNIST, NYTimes.com on the Web, July 6, 2007
On this Fourth of July, President
Bush compared the Iraq war to the Revolutionary War, and called for “more
patience, more courage and more sacrifice.” Unfortunately, it seems that
nobody asked the obvious question: “What sacrifices have you and your
friends made, Mr. President?”
On second thought, there would be no point in asking that question. In Mr.
Bush’s world, only the little people make sacrifices.
You see, the Iraq war, although Mr. Bush insists that it’s part of a Global War
on Terror™, a fight to the death between good and evil, isn’t like America’s
other great wars — wars in which the wealthy shared the financial burden through
higher taxes and many members of the elite fought for their country.
This time around, Mr. Bush celebrated Mission Accomplished by cutting tax rates
on dividends and capital gains, while handing out huge no-bid contracts to
politically connected corporations. And in the four years since, as the
insurgency Mr. Bush initially taunted with the cry of “Bring them on” has
claimed the lives of thousands of Americans and left thousands more grievously
wounded, the children of the elite — especially the Republican elite — have been
conspicuously absent from the battlefield.
The Bushies, it seems, like starting fights, but they don’t believe in paying
any of the cost of those fights or bearing any of the risks. Above all,
they don’t believe that they or their friends should face any personal or
professional penalties for trivial sins like distorting intelligence to get
America into an unnecessary war, or totally botching that war’s execution.
The Web site Think Progress has a summary of what happened to the men behind the
war after we didn’t find W.M.D., and weren’t welcomed as liberators: “The
architects of war: Where are they now?” To read that summary is to
be awed by the comprehensiveness and generosity of the neocon welfare system.
Even Paul Wolfowitz, who managed the rare feat of messing up not one but two
high-level jobs, has found refuge at the American Enterprise Institute.
Which brings us to the case of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr.
The hysteria of the neocons over the prospect that Mr. Libby might actually do
time for committing perjury was a sight to behold. In an opinion piece in
The Wall Street Journal titled “Fallen Soldier,” Fouad Ajami of Johns Hopkins
University cited the soldier’s creed: “I will never leave a fallen
comrade.” He went on to declare that “Scooter Libby was a soldier in your
— our — war in Iraq.”
Ah, yes. Shuffling papers in an air-conditioned Washington office is
exactly like putting your life on the line in Anbar or Baghdad. Spending
30 months in a minimum-security prison, with a comfortable think-tank job
waiting at the other end, is exactly like having half your face or both your
legs blown off by an I.E.D.
What lay behind the hysteria, of course, was the prospect that for the very
first time one of the people who tricked America into war, then endangered
national security yet again in the effort to cover their tracks, might pay some
price. But Mr. Ajami needn’t have worried.
Back when the investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity
began, Mr. Bush insisted that if anyone in his administration had violated the
law, “that person will be taken care of.” Now we know what he meant.
Mr. Bush hasn’t challenged the verdict in the Libby case, and other people
convicted of similar offenses have spent substantial periods of time in prison.
But Mr. Libby goes free.
Oh, and don’t fret about the fact that Mr. Libby still had to pay a fine.
Does anyone doubt that his friends will find a way to pick up the tab?
Mr. Bush says that Mr. Libby’s punishment remains “harsh” because his reputation
is “forever damaged.” Meanwhile, Mr. Bush employs, as a deputy national
security adviser, none other than Elliott Abrams, who pleaded guilty to
unlawfully withholding information from Congress in the Iran-contra affair.
Mr. Abrams was one of six Iran-contra defendants pardoned by Mr. Bush’s father,
who was himself a subject of the special prosecutor’s investigation of the
scandal.
In other words, obstruction of justice when it gets too close to home is a
family tradition. And being a loyal Bushie means never having to say
you’re sorry.
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