By now the whole stinkin' world is aware of the so-called "Downing Street Memo." That's the one the British government prepared in July of 2002--eight months before the unlawful invasion of my peace loving* nation--that said the "intelligence and facts were being fixed" by the United States in order to justify the upcoming war. This document only recently came to light, but there has been a surprising lack of outrage over it.

Then again, that may well be because everyone has been too busy following the Michael Jackson child molestation trial. Consequently, no one has had time to pay attention to something which might explain why tens of thousands of people have died unnecessarily.

Thank Allah the world has its priorities straight.

But now a second, possibly even more damaging document has come to light. This one is a briefing paper written for Blair--shortly before the Downing Street memo--that says the United States had done virtually no planning for the postwar occupation of Iraq, and warned that dangerous instability would plague the country once I was deposed.

This last article also quotes then Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz' testimony on Feb. 28, 2003, before the US Congress. He said that containment of Hussein the previous 12 years had cost "slightly over $30 billion," adding, "I can't imagine anyone here wanting to spend another $30 billion to be there for another 12 years." Wolfie was quoting these figures to further justify the upcoming invasion on an economic basis.

So how have those numbers withstood the test of time? Well, as of May, the Congressional Research Service estimated that Congress has approved $208 billion for the war in Iraq since 2003. Now I wasn't a math major in college, nor did I even minor in the subject. I was much too busy studying how to build non-existent weapons of mass destruction. But even with my limited knowledge of really big numbers, it seems to me that 208 billion over two and a half years is slightly larger than 30 billion over 12 years.

Remember all this the next time Rumsfeld says that no one could have foreseen the current insurgency.

*Except for the occasional invasion and plundering of a neighboring country.