Less Bush, More Helen Thomas, Please

Helen Thomas. 'nuff said. The first 45 seconds of the video are all you need to see.

Q Mr. President, you started this war, a war of your choosing, and you can end it alone, today, at this point — bring in peacekeepers, U.N. peacekeepers. Two million Iraqis have fled their country as refugees. Two million more are displaced. Thousands and thousands are dead. Don’t you understand, you brought the al Qaeda into Iraq.

THE PRESIDENT: Actually, I was hoping to solve the Iraqi issue diplomatically. That’s why I went to the United Nations and worked with the United Nations Security Council, which unanimously passed a resolution that said disclose, disarm or face serious consequences. That was the message, the clear message to Saddam Hussein. He chose the course.

Q Didn’t we go into Iraq –

THE PRESIDENT: It was his decision to make. Obviously, it was a difficult decision for me to make, to send our brave troops, along with coalition troops, into Iraq...

Another presser, more of the same. September 11th, Al Qaeda, Saddam Hussein. New way forward. This young democracy. Freedom. Govern, defend, sustain itself. Hard work. There rather than here. Mix 'n' match.

Meanwhile, as W pays lip service to our brave troops, we learn that Marines are being sacrificed in the interest of no-bid contracts.

The contracts continued even though Force Protection "did not perform as a responsible contractor and repeatedly failed to meet contractual delivery schedules for getting vehicles to the theater," the report said. Under one contract issued in 2005, Force Protection failed to deliver 98 percent of 122 mine-resistant vehicles on time despite getting $6.7 million from the Marines to upgrade its production facilities.

The report, signed by Richard B. Jolliffe, assistant inspector general for acquisition and contract management, also found that a subsidiary of Armor Holdings of Jacksonville, Fla., was late delivering some crew-protection kits, which are added to vehicles' windows and doors, and provided others with missing and unusable components. The delays, including reinstalling the kits, "all resulted in increased risk to the lives of soldiers," according to the report.

Remember, voting to cut off funding in order to bring the troops home undermines them, but continuing to pay companies who lag far behind schedule or deliver substandard quality somehow supports them.

And all for what? Propping up a barely wheezing government that will collapse the second we leave? Keeping the bad guys at bay until the Iraqi security forces decide they want to show up for work?