War to end all fiscal restraint

The U.S. seems destined to be stuck between Iraq and an even harder place as Democrats basically throw up their hands on any sort of accelerated withdrawal plan while high-level U.S. brass have begun evincing unprecedented uneasiness over the military's ability to absorb much more punishment in Iraq, which is beginning to look a lot like Afghanistan to our Soviet Union.

The cost of the invasion, which Paul Wolfowitz intially projected at about $3 billion a year for 10 years--an amount, he blithely suggested, that could easily be covered with a rebate of Iraq oil revenue--now appears headed past a previously deemed preposterous $1/2 trillion mark (and much more when future costs are factored in) as Bob Gates appears before Congress with a request for $190 billion for next year; $42 billion more than originally projected this year.

A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking real money. Fortunately the lion's share of the tab seems destined to be absorbed by our great grand children. Would that I could pull off the same scam at a Chicago restaurant sometime: "Oh, no. Just leave the check here. There'll be a family by in 2037 to pick it up for me."