Scary and scandalous

[impeach the gop]

The US administration's defence authorisation bill for fiscal year
2004 was signed into law by George Bush this week. In all, it
totals $401.3bn. Amazingly, this figure does not include one-off
appropriations for US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan of
approximately $150bn. Overall US defence expenditure under Mr
Bush is at record levels. It is higher, in relative terms, than
equivalent, average American spending during the cold war
years when a hostile Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact confronted
the US and its allies with thousands of nuclear warheads
deployed on land, at sea and in the air, as well as chemical and
biological weapons and vast conventional forces. Yet Mr Bush
suggested that terrorism now represented the most potent threat
in the history of the US. "The war on terror is different than (sic)
any war America has ever fought," he said. "This threat to
civilisation will be defeated. We will do whatever it takes." So
much for the peace dividend.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,1093202,00.html

[maggrwaggr]

1. these guys were losing money on the peace dividend

so now they've got the eternal war they've always dreamed of. It's even better than the missle defense shield!

[dani]

2. perpetual war

for perpetual peace.

[nostamj]

5. and the subtitle:

HOW WE GOT TO BE SO HATED

(excellent book! along with "Dreaming War")

[terrya]

6. Gore Vidal is prescient, to say the least.

It's the national security state, continuing unabated.

[greyl]

3. Including money for new Nuclear Weapons.

The sick missile-envy driven fuckers.

[truthspeaker]

4. new nukes

Even though "Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction", according to Bush.