I'm just an idiot who posts his opinions for the whole world to see. I'm not a professional writer, I just pretend to be one on the net. That said, can anyone follow Walter Cronkite in this article:

In spite of the sticker-shock uproar about President Bush's $87 billion emergency request for Iraq and Afghanistan, it is being debated in the House and Senate and is expected to pass with only minor cuts - fewer garbage trucks here, "no" to a children's hospital there.

Ironically, this request comes at a time when the administration is facing criticism from across the political spectrum for its handling of the war's aftermath: the false confidence, the lack of planning, the inadequate forces and the alienation of allies. Even the administration seems at odds with itself.

The request also comes at a time when unemployment in America appears to be static but still records the loss - since Bush took office - of some 2.8 million manufacturing jobs; a time when 15 percent of Americans are without any health insurance, and critical parts of the national infrastructure are in perilous states of disrepair - the electrical grid is the most dramatic example.

All right, that fits the basic boilerplate spending money in Iraq is taking food out of the mouths of poor people and people who have to choose between that frontal lobotomy and getting that Septa pass for work. I've been on Septa (I'm reasonably sure that the frontal lobotomy patients have opted for the pass, I've sat next to them).

However misled by scare stories and faulty, hyped intelligence, a large majority of Americans fully supported, and Congress overwhelmingly approved, the decisions to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq. We don't have the option of saying now that we can't afford it. I think most Americans understand that - even those who opposed the Iraq war from the beginning. I was particularly struck by the comments of former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun - an early war opponent, now one of the nine who seek the Democratic presidential nomination. She said, "It is absolutely critical that we not cut and run, that we provide our troops with what they need and that we not just blow up that country and leave it blown up; we have a responsibility."

In 1991, the American president urged the Iraqi people to rise up and overthrow Saddam Hussein. We then stood by as Saddam slaughtered tens of thousands of those he suspected of taking that advice. That retaliation included the draining of Iraq's great marshlands, destroying the economy of more than 200,000 "marsh Arabs." The dead can't be resurrected, but at this point Congress is still debating whether some of the $87 billion will go to restoring those marshlands - just one of those costly responsibilities.

OK, He goes from leaving Iraq and the citizens to die, on to the "marsh Arabs" and if any money will go in that direction. Jeez, he even quoted Carol Mosely-Braun, Take a second to read this and imagine this article as a ride with Walter in a car, tell me that he wouldn't be all over the road then mumbling "Quagmire" to himself in a ditch.