Posted on 09/20/2005 9:07:44 AM PDT by ancientart
There's no doubt about it. The president misled us about the war. He misled us about how long it would take. He misled us about how much it would cost. The president's unfairly maligned critics have been completely vindicated as the war has degenerated into a complete disaster, a chaotic mess that destroys lives, threatens to empty the treasury and - as an added bonus - makes the problem it was originally intended to fix far worse than it was before.
It's time for the president's supporters to drop their partisan defense of the indefensible, admit they've made a mess of things, get out of the way and let leaders take over whose policies might have some chance of success. Yes - it's time to admit it: the War on Poverty is an unwinnable quagmire.
Remember the president's promise to us in his original declaration of war. "Today, for the first time in the history of the human race, a great nation is able to make and is willing to make a commitment to eradicate poverty among its people."
The price tag? Only $10 billion, he told us. Well, we are now spending $250 billion per year on anti-poverty programs - more than $5 trillion dollars since the war began.
This is money that could be used for programs Americans would like to see better supported. Bringing the War on Poverty to an end would eliminate the need for painful cuts in other programs. No more worries about base closings!
And what is it we're getting for the trillions of dollars we're spending? The president again and again cited the dreadful conditions in rural Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina in explaining why we had a moral imperative for going to war, and this region has been a primary target of anti-poverty spending. Nevertheless, despite the billions we've spent on the Appalachian Triangle, illiteracy rates, poverty rates and unemployment rates are still more than 40 percent. And, no matter how much we spend, it doesn't seem to be enough. There are counties where annual anti-poverty spending exceeds $36,000 per poor family - and where hundreds of people are still below the poverty level.
The truth of the matter is that, much as we may prize prosperity ourselves, we can't impose prosperity on others. What makes us think that people who have never had our standard of living are at all interested in becoming like us? Sure, what they had before the war wasn't all that great, but at least they had stability. Now poor areas are filled with criminal gangs, pimps and drug dealers. The War has left ruined schools, ruined neighborhoods and ruined lives.
We should have known better. We should have seen that the real reason for the war had nothing to do with poverty. The president was just playing on popular emotion to try to ensure his re-election, while at the same time enriching his friends in the anti-poverty business.
And there may have been something more sinister involved as well. The primary support for the president's illegal War on Poverty came from a cabal of Jews and Christians. Groups like The Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds joined with the Salvation Army and Lutheran Social Services and dozens of other religious organization to push an anti-poverty agenda.
Clearly, it's time to insist that the president make plain to us his exit strategy. But in a transparent attempt to avoid uncomfortable confrontations with his critics, the president has headed to a place even hotter than his Texas ranch. Plenty of media figures are following him anyway. And who knows? The whole of country may be headed that way too if we can't find our way out of the handbasket.
*snicker*
Spare us, please!
The beat goes on...the constant drum beat from the left...
IBTZ?
Opinions, are like a$$...les, everyone has one....
ROTFLMAO!!!! I thought that this was gonna be another anti-Iraq screed from a leftie. Great article!
Re-read the article. (Or maybe read it for the first time...)
"The primary support for the president's illegal War on Poverty came from a cabal of Jews and Christians."
The way you write the words Jews and Christians in an Illegal War on Poverty makes me think you are a bigoted fool.
The "War on Drugs" is too..........
Ya might wanna read the whole article.....
Really? I seem to remember lots of statements on Iraq similar in content to "it takes as long as it takes". And I seem to remember lots of statements that the bigger war on terror (unspoken Islamism) would take many years. I read on further.
Why don't you try reading the article?
Did you guys even read the article?.......
I support the poor but not the war.
This thread has gone on long enough. End it.
Au contraire...there is very serious doubt.We haven't searched Syria,a country very friendly to Sadaam,run by a fellow Baathist and whose border with Iraq was the scene of an enormous amount of very curious activity (numerous large trucks crossing) in the weeks leading up to the war.
Looks like I should have read further:)
Read the whole thing, folks. LBJ lied!
DOH! I'm so sorry! I feel rather silly ... I'll get back to you ... :)
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