Gee, fighting a war costs money -- how about that? Only an abysmally ignorant leader with an abysmally ignorant staff would have forgotten the lessons of Vietnam and Korea -- not to mention both World Wars -- and believed that an overseas nation could be invaded and occupied with no adverse effects on the domestic economy. And we went with him, to a place we had no right to be and no business in.

How long will we have to go on fighting wars until the message sinks in -- in war there are never winners, only losers.

Jon J, you forget some American private businesses close to the Administration profitted greatly from the theft of the American taxpayer, in these wars. The transferance of public money into private hands is almost beautiful in it's success, as Americans no matter how educated they were voted for it.

JonJ

No winners from wars only losers?

Either you have an abysmally short memory or your being incredibly selective in your interpretation.

Ask the French, the Belgians, the Dutch how they feel about WW2. According to your philosophy most of Europe would still be part of the Third Reich.

Just look at the situation in Korea where anyone who can, gets out of the North at ANY cost, including regularly, their lives. At least we managed to save the people of South Korea from the hellish fate of their brothers and sisters in the north.

We could not do the same for the people of South Vietnam. Unfortunately we were sabotaged from within, and the consequences were disastrous across the region. See the exodus from Vietnam on rickety boats of anyone who had the money to leave.

More recently you should remember the plight of the Bosnian Muslims and the Kosovar Alabanians who would have been completely wiped out were it not for our intervention. The same goes for our intervention in East Timor and to a lesser extent in the Solomons.

Freedom, as they say, is never free. The birth of the US was a bloody affair, as has been that of the new democracy in Iraq. If it can sustain itself it will be seen as one of the most important events of the century, the first real Arab democracy. It will set a precedent that will help tear down the dictators and theocrats of the region from within.

Many of the socialists among us don't put a very high price upon freedom, but the people who have suffered under real tyrants fortunately don't feel the same way.

It'll be difficult to garner either understanding or sympathy for the position America's in, Walt. There's no end to what others see as hubris and exceptionalism on her part and most of the world is waiting for her to pull her head in. Even if that does mean recession.

Like Reagan, George Bush's legacy won't become apparent nor broadly accepted for a few years yet.

It is a little premature to predict exactly what his legacy will be.

Nobody is yet quite sure of the Clinton legacy.

I think while the economic outlook is very poor, the under-lying causes probably are not so much 'outsourcing' but more to do with the sub-prime mortgage fiasco, the unfettered speculation on the price of oil, inappropriate interventions from the Federal Reserve, and the effect of the spectular growth of China.

None of those can be directly blamed on George Bush and may be a flow on from the freeing up of restraints and regulation during Clinton years.

Anti-war lobby groups often claimed wars in the past have produced economic booms in parts of the US economy which supply the military ... Iraq and Afghanistan have probably done the same. And indeed early critic's of the Iraq invasion claimed the economic benefits accruing from these interventions were one of the reasons the US went to war. Much has been made of the US Military - Industrial base of the US economy by these groups. Now it seems that argument has been replaced to suit the current criticial analysis of Bush and his administration.

The current massive under-highlighted policy changes in the US that have created a move toward a substantial and much more inclusive peace in the mid-east will be a large part of Bush's legacy ... if carried through by the next administration.

In that regard I'm looking with interest to the positions and actions of both US presidential candidates. That might just have a greater determination on Bush's legacy and indeed will overshadow the influence of the economy or indeed George's own efforts.

There are tiny sectors of the population that benefit enormously from war. Dick Cheney, for one, is part of that sector.
The Bush family is another, as are their good friends, the Bin Ladin's.
Good article, outsourcing is basically just evil.