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Dave Roberts writes:
Today is the five-year anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War. I don't have a whole lot to say about it that other people haven't said better. I would just stress one point:People frequently fret that we can't afford the measures necessary to fight climate change. That is false. We are an enormously rich country. We're in the midst of spending trillions on a war that is providing no benefits whatsoever, just to stoke the imperialist fantasies of our ruling class. We can afford whatever we want. It's whether we really want it that's the question.Same goes for health care, obviously, though the odds are good that decent health reform will save us money. But cost wasn't an issue when we passed that tax cuts, and cost wasn't an issue when we went to war. In part, this is because the administration lied a lot, and said the war would be cheap and paid for out of Iraqi oil revenues. But in part, it's a failure of progressive messaging. Some credentialed economists should have been tapped to come up with a number that could be commonly referred to in the "is it worth it?" question. But in general, cost concerns are less a reality in American politics than they are a tactic. And the Right is much better at using them when helpful, and ignoring them when convenient, than the left.
