Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A New Way to Burn Money

Just about the time you think the Obama administration has scaled the heights of lunacy, something else comes along that makes all previous follies look like the epitome of level-headedness. The latest enormity is as follows: "The United States plans to pledge more than $900 million to help rebuild Gaza after Israel's invasion." So... with our own economy turning into green slime like the monster in some "B" movie, we're going to spend nearly a billion dollars on a place smaller than most counties in the U.S., to fix the damage caused by our ally, using our money and our weapons. Did I get that right? And what's going to guarantee that the minute we "rebuild" Gaza the Israelis won't just trash it again? This sounds to me like a full-employment act for the Army Corps of Engineers, or Halliburton, or something. We rebuild, the Israelis destroy, we rebuild again, ad infinitum. I mean, what's going to stop them? And what's going to stop the Palestinians from provoking another conflict (as if the Israelis needed any provocation)? Are we going to tell Israel to stop bombing the place? Plus -- who knew that the net worth of Gaza was anywhere near a billion dollars? I demand an audit! As near as I can tell from photos, the whole place could be bought up for less than an average minor league franchise.

Plus, what is our agenda in all of this? It certainly isn't any great feeling of charity toward the Palestinians, who have been represented, by our politicians and media, as subhuman for the past 60 years. It's certainly not a favor to Israel, because they've never been the least bit concerned about the level of misery among the Palestinians. Does anyone expect it to soften our relations with the Arab world? Not as long as Israel struts around flashing our no-limit credit card. I just can't figure it out... but it's certainly a situation worth watching very closely.

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