Simple answer. Money doesn't grow on trees. It is earned by productive people and confiscated from them by the government via taxation. The list of "do good" programs is already impossibly large and the burden is falling on fewer taxpayers as the baby boomers retire. The socialist programs are going to collapse. There is no pot of gold to pay for government silver bullets.
I agree, Myrddin. If the government told us exactly what they know about the terrorist threats, people would demand that 100% of the shipping containers be searched, that the borders be closed, that everyone be given protective gear, that everyone be provided with underground shelters, etc, etc, etc. There is not enough money in the world to protect us. That is the BOTTOM LINE. It can't be done. PERIOD. We have to face it. The survival of our nation, as we now know it, is at stake. We are going to be hurt BIG TIME, and many people will die, but I honestly think that we will come out stronger and better. I gotta believe that. I do... Keep the faith, my friend... TMGrasshoppers
BAGHDAD (AFP) — The top Iraqi security official said Governing Council members met foreign prisoners, including Turks, Syrians and Moroccans, who said they were paid to conduct attacks against coalition troops and Iraqis.
"They confessed in clear Arabic that they have come to Iraq to carry out attacks and terrorist operations," Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, newly appointed national security advisor, told reporters.
He said their targets included Iraqi police, the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and government officials.
They also confessed "to being apprehended while carrying out attacks or planning to carry out attacks," according to Rubaie.
He called the foreign prisoners "terror mercenaries", saying they "numbered a few hundred" out of the 4,700 detainees at Abu Gharib prison, west of the capital.
The delegation confronted the foreigners about whether "their beliefs in jihad (holy war) and Islam justified killing children as happened in Basra recently," Rubaie said.
He said the foreigners were "shamed by this and their arguments were defeated."
The foreign prisoners also said they were being treated well by US troops and that "top-notch medical services were being provided to them."
Rubaie said the foreigners should be separated from other prisoners including Iraqi insurgents and loyalists of ousted president Saddam Hussein because "they might influence them with their jihadist thinking." He said that the delegation will hold a press conference Tuesday to give further details about its visit to Abu Gharib. The US-led coalition has long said that foreign terrorists, slipping mainly through the borders with Iran and Syria, were carrying out attacks in Iraq and fighting in the flashpoint Sunni town of Fallujah,west of the capital. A series of suicide car bomb attacks in Basra last week which killed 74 and wounded about 100, mostly policemen and children, have been blamed on the Al-Qaeda terror network.