{"id":8903,"date":"2006-10-30T10:23:52","date_gmt":"2006-10-30T15:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8903.html"},"modified":"2006-10-30T10:23:52","modified_gmt":"2006-10-30T15:23:52","slug":"galloways-unseemly-circus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/galloways-unseemly-circus\/","title":{"rendered":"Galloway’s ‘unseemly circus’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s hardly noteworthy when a newspaper columnist criticizes the Bush administration for its handling of the war in Iraq, but Joseph [tag]Galloway[\/tag] isn’t just another newspaper columnist.<\/p>\n

Galloway has more than four decades as a reporter and writer, and is widely considered a preeminent expert on military affairs. He’s a decorated<\/a> Vietnam correspondent, he’s a friend to top generals at the Pentagon, and he served as a special consultant to Gen. Colin Powell at the State Department. Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf described<\/a> Galloway as “the finest combat correspondent of our generation \u2013 a soldier’s reporter and a soldier’s friend.”<\/p>\n

And right now, Galloway isn’t hiding his disgust<\/a> for the Bush administration. It’s not just the White House playing semantics games about “stay the course” and parsing the meaning of “water-boarding,” though Galloway does find that annoying, it’s also the Bush gang’s under-reported funding decisions.<\/p>\n

[T]he White House that says nothing is too good for our troops has turned its back on a plea by Army leaders for a $25 billion increase in its 2008 budget so it can carry out the missions the administration has assigned to it.
\nThe White House Office of Management and Budget rejected Army chief Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker’s extraordinary plea by for the additional funds to pay for repairing and replacing thousands of worn out and blown up tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees.<\/p>\n

Instead of the $25 billion that Schoomaker says the Army needs just to keep doing what it’s been doing with spit, adhesive tape and baling wire for the last five years, the Pentagon says the Army can have $7 billion.<\/p>\n

The president declared himself confident that Republicans would sweep to victory and maintain their stranglehold on both houses of a Congress that’s done nothing but rubberstamp Bush’s war policies and Republican efforts to enrich their fat-cat donors and themselves, of course.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not sure why the OMB’s decision on the Schoomaker budget didn’t generate more headlines, but it certainly says a great deal about the administration’s priorities.<\/p>\n

Galloway also steps back to look at the big picture.
\n<\/p>\n

This unseemly circus and its clowns in Congress can’t go away fast enough and with enough dishonor and disgrace to suit the circumstances. Their place in America’s history is secure: They will go down as the worst administration and the worst Congress we’ve ever had. Period.<\/b> (emphasis added)<\/p>\n

They deserve to lose both the House and the Senate on Nov. 7, and the White House in 2008. They bullied their way into a war that they thought would be a slam-dunk and then so bungled things that the only superpower left in the world has been humbled and hobbled in a world that they’ve made more dangerous for us.<\/p>\n

Thanks, guys. You’ve done a heckuva job. We won’t forget it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again, it’s worth reemphasizing Galloway’s unique credibility here — it’s fair to describe as the most respected reporter on military affairs in the country. When Paul Krugman or Molly Ivins, both of whom I hold in the highest regard, write a column like this, the political establishment largely just shrugs its shoulders. With Galloway eviscerating the GOP, it’s a bigger deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s hardly noteworthy when a newspaper columnist criticizes the Bush administration for its handling of the war in Iraq, but Joseph [tag]Galloway[\/tag] isn’t just another newspaper columnist. Galloway has more than four decades as a reporter and writer, and is widely considered a preeminent expert on military affairs. He’s a decorated Vietnam correspondent, he’s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}