30 September 2006

Cowards or Coup?

Yesterday, the senate passed a new defense spending bill 100-0. Every single Senator agreed that we should spend another half a trillion dollars on defense. It is impossible that a Senate so divided would actually have true unanimity on any topic. It seems to me that there can only be two explanations: either Senators talking about support for our brave troops are too cowardly to be accused of "not supporting our military" should they question a single dime that the Pentagon asks for, or there has already been a coup and the military no longer has to answer to anyone (a possibility strengthened by the fact that it has been half a decade since Congress has even gone through the motions of oversight of Pentagon spending, basically giving the Pentagon free rein to spend unchecked).

There is a difference between loving one's children and blindly granting every funding request that they make, without question or oversight. At a minimum one might think that at least one Senator could stand up and make this point but even that timid claim would take more courage than any Senator has yet demonstrated.

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