Panhandling for Freedom

Lobotomies don't come cheap y'know.

Bush plea for cash to rebuild Iraq raises $600

Mark Townsend in Houston
Sunday September 25, 2005
The Observer

An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600 (£337), The Observer has learnt. Yet since the appeal was launched earlier this month, donations to rebuild New Orleans have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars.

The public's reluctance to contribute much more than the cost of two iPods to the administration's attempt to offer citizens 'a further stake in building a free and prosperous Iraq' has been seized on by critics as evidence of growing ambivalence over that country.

This coincides with concern over the increasing cost of the war. More than $30 billion has been appropriated for the reconstruction. Initially, America's overseas aid agency, USaid, expected it to cost taxpayers no more than $1.7bn, but it is now asking the public if they want to contribute even more.

The Guardian

After having wasted, stolen or otherwise misappropriated Iraqi money and spending more and more federal money this is lowest, most pathetic ebb of the Bush administration. Behold modern 'conservatism'. Seeing as how we keep being told this war is an undertaking on a par with WWII it would be churlish, though not inaccurate of me to point out that if this was 1941 it might be a good idea to learn how to say, "I didn't pay for this war, please don't shoot me!" in Japanese and German.