Bush Projects Zero War-Related Costs for 2010

Technorati Tags: Pres. Bush, budget+projections, Iraq war

Ezra Klein on Bush's hidden (until now) anti-war platform:

It's all well and good to talk about the Defeatocrat plans, what with their regional redeployments and plans to retain skeletal civic support and special forces in Iraq, but if you want some real anti-war sentiment, you got to check out the new Bush administration budget projections:

Their request, for the first time, attempts to show the true cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming fiscal year, $145 billion, but includes just $50 billion for fiscal 2009 and nothing thereafter.

And nothing thereafter. So in fiscal year 2010, the Bush administration is officially projecting that we will not have one troop, not one civil servant, not one installation or falafel receipt or Halliburton disbursement in Iraq or Afghanistan. There will be a total withdrawal, with absolutely no associated or lingering costs. Or, at the least, the administration will request, and expects Congress to grant, a complete cutoff of all funding for the war. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is political courage. Well, political courage, or an attempt to cook the books so our fiscal situation looks better than it really is.