Krugman

Paul Krugman writes such sensible and level-headed columns for The New York Times. It's a true wonder to me that his column appears in the same newspaper as the inane writings of David Brooks. In his recent Sacrifice Is For Suckers, he says:

On this Fourth of July, President Bush compared the Iraq war to the Revolutionary War, and called for “more patience, more courage and more sacrifice.” Unfortunately, it seems that nobody asked the obvious question: “What sacrifices have you and your friends made, Mr. President?”

....

This time around, Mr. Bush celebrated Mission Accomplished by cutting tax rates on dividends and capital gains, while handing out huge no-bid contracts to politically connected corporations. And in the four years since, as the insurgency Mr. Bush initially taunted with the cry of “Bring them on” has claimed the lives of thousands of Americans and left thousands more grievously wounded, the children of the elite — especially the Republican elite — have been conspicuously absent from the battlefield.

The Bushies, it seems, like starting fights, but they don’t believe in paying any of the cost of those fights or bearing any of the risks. Above all, they don’t believe that they or their friends should face any personal or professional penalties for trivial sins like distorting intelligence to get America into an unnecessary war, or totally botching that war’s execution.

Remember, "Bring them on!" I remember wandering at the time what the troops and their families thought about that. Many folks that I talked to back then seemed OK with it. Amazing.

Today, I ask the president and the US Congress what John Kerry asked them in 1971 about the Vietnam War, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

You can't read the entire column, unless you have access to TimesSelect. Sorry about that, but it's the leadership at the NYT who should be sorry.

UPDATE: Paul Krugman's entire column can be found at Truthout, along with an excellent piece by Elizabeth de la Vega, titled Bush's Real Fourth of July Message to Nation: Unprintable. De la Vega says:

The only reason Bush did not pardon Libby was because he wanted Libby to be able to continue to plead his fifth amendment privilege not to testify against himself - most particularly before Congress - based on the fact that the case was still before the Court of Appeals.

Thanks to Caminante in the comments.