500 Billion and Counting

Here's what our billions of dollars and the lives of thousands of American soldiers has produced for us in Iraq - a fiercely divided and shell shocked nation where Islamist extremists have more power than they ever dreamed of:

This is how staggeringly pointless the killing in Iraq is getting: shepherds in the rural western Baghdad neighborhood of Gazalea have recently been murdered, according to locals, for failing to diaper their goats. Apparently the sexual tension is so high in regions where Sheikhs take a draconian view of Shariah law, that they feel the sight of naked goats poses an unacceptable temptation. They blame the goats.

Ah religion, the stupidest invention ever. We didn't create Islam of course, we've just made sure its craziest practicioners now run Iraq. Add to that massive civil unrest that is leading to a civil war, a huge pro-hezbollah/anti-american rally, and the engendering of even more hatred for the US and Israel then before. Awesome. But you know, the defeat of Lieberman emboldens the terrorists, or so we're told. I hear a lot of terrorists subcribe to the RSS feed of the Hartford Courant and let me tell you, they don't make a move without seeing where the Democrats stand first. Six years into a Republican White House, Congress, and Court System and the terrorists still look to the Dems to find out what to do? Wow, who knew (aside from Rove of course). Here's Krugman's take on Lieberman's post defeat posture (sorry, no link, the article is behind the Times Select subscription wall):

There’s an overwhelming consensus among national security experts that the war in Iraq has undermined, not strengthened, the fight against terrorism. Yet yesterday Mr. Lieberman, sounding just like Dick Cheney — and acting as a propaganda tool for Republicans trying to Swift-boat the party of which he still claims to be a member — suggested that the changes in Iraq policy that Mr. Lamont wants would be “taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England.”

Forgive us Joe, we're sorry, you know best. We voters, well, it's not like there are any requirements to vote so sometimes whe need people like you to remind us that we don't know what we're doing.