Iraq: A Gift to Our Grandchildren

Via Crooks & Liars, "new" Majority Leader (same as the old boss) John Boehner (R-OH) on Iraq and our progeny:

It may not benefit our generation, but for our kids and theirs, this maybe the greatest gift we give them.

Which gift is that? The crushing debt of a war costing $1 billion a week? That's cost each American family $3000 so far? Or maybe the gift is to be drafted to serve in a conflict that has the potential to drag on for decades, according to no less an authority than former President Jimmy Carter, appearing on Larry King a few nights ago:

CARTER: ...But, what I believe is that there are people in Washington now, some of our top leaders, who never intend to withdraw military forces from Iraq and they're looking for ten, 20, 50 years in the future...

KING: Why?

CARTER: ...having major American military board -- well, because that was the reason that we went into Iraq was to establish a permanent military base in the Gulf region and I have never heard any of our leaders say that they would commit themselves to the Iraqi people that ten years from now there will be no military bases of the United States in Iraq.

I would like to hear that. But that's one of the things that concerns Iraqi people. And when I meet with Arab leaders around the world they all have noticed this. They're the ones that have brought it to my attention and I think it's an accurate statement.

KING: Do you believe that's the intent of the administration to keep the -- when you say high officials do you mean the Bush administration wants to keep troops in Iraq ad infinitum?

CARTER: Yes, I do and I hope I'm wrong. I don't think there's any doubt that we did not need to go into Iraq. We went in there under false pretenses, either inadvertent misunderstanding of intelligence or maybe deliberate. I'm not saying it was deliberate. I don't think President Bush was deliberately misleading us, maybe some of his subordinates.

Or maybe Boehner is speaking of our gift to future generations of Iraqis: occupation, a fundamentalist theocracy, a crippled infrastructure, a government rife with corruption.

I'm sure you'll understand, Mr. Boehner, when all those thank you cards don't show up in your mailbox.