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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

The 'war' at the 'Wash Post' continues

I wish I had a dollar for every time in recent years the fine reporting by The Washington Post's news staff caused (or should have caused) embarrassment for the hawks on the paper's editorial board. This past Sunday, the paper carried an op-ed by three of its favorite contributors, Michael O'Hanlon, Fred Kagan, and Gen. Jack Keane, once again touting the "surge." Right at the start they hail the new de-Baathification law as "an important step toward political reconciliation."

Today, guess what? A front pager in the same paper by Amit R. Paley and Joshua Partlow relates, "Approved by parliament this month under pressure from U.S. officials, the law was heralded by President Bush and Iraqi leaders as a way to soothe the deep anger of many ex-Baathists -- primarily Sunnis but also many Shiites such as Awadi -- toward the Shiite-led government." However: "More than a dozen Iraqi lawmakers, U.S. officials and former Baathists here and in exile expressed concern in interviews that the law could set off a new purge of ex-Baathists, the opposite of U.S. hopes for the legislation."

Then there's the shockingly much-overlooked financial cost of the war: "Funding for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and other activities in the war on terrorism expanded significantly in 2007," the Congressional Budget Office said in a report released on Wednesday. War funding, which averaged about $93 billion a year from 2003 through 2005, rose to $120 billion in 2006 and $171 billion in 2007 and President George W. Bush has asked for $193 billion in 2008.

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