Jack & Jill Politics

Over Twitter last night, a dangerously intelligent friend of mine @ggreeneva wrote:

Dear GOP: if you liked it, then you shouldn’t have put Iraq on it. Signed, America

Once again, Beyonce inspires — indirectly this time perhaps — a nation.

During the State of the Union, Obama had this to say about the budget he’ll be presenting to Congress soon and about Iraq:

Finally, because we’re also suffering from a deficit of trust, I am committed to restoring a sense of honesty and accountability to our budget.  That is why this budget looks ahead ten years and accounts for spending that was left out under the old rules – and for the first time, that includes the full cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.  For seven years, we have been a nation at war.  No longer will we hide its price.

We are now carefully reviewing our policies in both wars, and I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war.

From this WaPo this am comes this news:

President Obama is expected to announce as early as Friday that he will remove all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by August 2010, three months later than promised during his campaign, U.S. officials said. Obama has not made a final decision on the matter, but it could come during a trip to give a speech in North Carolina on Friday.

Frankly, I’d prefer to see this happen sooner like August 2009. For far too long have we spent far too much blood and treasure waging war on a country that did not attack us and did not have any weapons of mass destruction with which to attack us. Rather than investing in our own nation, we have spent precious resources rebuilding someone else’s nation as our own schools, bridges and levees crumble. The cost of this war is partly responsible for the crippling of the world economy. The Iraq war needs to end. At least we got a date, but I’d like to see troops come home sooner and the current billions for war re-directed to the needs here at home. With, of course, some greater attention paid to Afghanistan and Pakistan where we need to get serious and soon if we really want to do something about Al Qaeda and its ilk.