Ground Swell?

Remember when Bush told us the war in Iraq would only cost $80 billion? Some now calculate the indirect cost as high as $1.5 trillion. The only direction W. could run a business was into the ground. He seems to have found a business model to his liking, one with a huge blank check, where he can just keep adding zeroes.

Is there really a movement to push for an American troup withdrawal from Iraq? A recent debate in Congress seemed a response to the debacle. The comparison has been to Vietnam, but there is no comparison between the two other than a very superficial one.

Vietnam was about big business's terror over a world wide labor movement, which didn't exist, and the Demcoratic party's need to demonstrate it could be tough on "communism," a concept that had never been practiced anywhere in the world other than among small groups of people.

Iraq is about the handful of oil companies wanting desperately to get Iraqi oil out of the Iraq government's hands and to sit American troops on top of it so that the oil companies can control the oil market.

And then there is the American banks' need to keep the dollar as the standard for oil pricing.

These are the rationals for America's war with Iraq. It's just that simple and straightforward. Nothing so plain and simple existed in America's madness in Vietnam. And America's exit from Vietnam had no effect on America, other than its collective psyche.

The problem with a withdrawal from Iraq is that no one knows what will fill the void once the U.S. pulls out. Make no mistake, the Democrats don't want to face that void anymore than the Republicans do.