Despite the fact that we promised not to turn our backs on Afghanistan after we overthrew its worthless, hateful government and blew up thousands of its citizens, the Bush administration failed to request any money at all for aid to the Afghans in the current budget. The BBC reports that Congress scratched together $300 million for Afghanistan after the executive branch left them out in the cold. Keep this in mind when you hear talk now of grand plans for rebuilding Iraq as a Western-style democracy immediately after we take it apart brick by brick. Our current President is already forgetting commitments he made personally, what do we think will happen to Iraq and our other victims once we have our next regularly scheduled regime change? As the article points out, ousting Saddam has implications not just for the Iraqis, but also for countries like Jordan and Syria that are heavily dependent upon Iraq as well. Did you know that Jordan gets all of its oil for free from Iraq, or that Syria gets oil on the cheap from Iraq as well? What’s going to happen to the economies of those countries when the war starts and when it’s over? I suppose that the hawks would suggest that we just let them hang, being that they’re freedom hating Arabs and all, but that strikes me as a failing strategy.

In the meantime, it seems like the war has, in essence, already started.