The Ming Report

The Way Things Are

May 12, 2005 - According to The Financial Times real incomes of Americans are shrinking at the fastest rate since December 1991 when George H. W. Bush was President. As it did 12 years ago price inflation is outstripping wage gains and Americans are falling farther behind – especially at the gas pump. The Senate quietly passed a $83 Billion supplemental appropriation for operations in Iraq. That brings the cost of the war to in excess of $300 Billion. The American casualty count in Iraq is edging toward 1700 dead with nearly 12,500 wounded in the war that was over two years ago.

Marine raids along the Syrian border ran into a well planned defense in depth from prepared defensive positions. The Baghdad follies report an insurgent body count of at least 100. Commanders on the ground say it is closer to a dozen or two. The language of the military news briefings is familiar. The Marine’s mission along the Syrian border is interdiction the infiltration of supplies and fighters along the enemy’s rat line from its Syrian sanctuary. In this re-enactment the Euphrates is playing the part of the Mekong and the Swift Boats’ descendants are back on the river as we plunge into the third year of this war. Are we far removed from a 21st century version of the Cambodian incursion with the Marines operating on the Syrian border?

Crude oil reached $52 per barrel yesterday. Fuel for the transportation and agricultural industries are up more than one-third from last year. Delta Airlines is pointing to fuel costs and warning again that it faces the distinct probability that it will be driven into bankruptcy. The cost of everything is boosted when the cost of getting goods to market goes up. Rising gas prices don’t just impact individuals and businesses. Every police car on patrol costs more. Every engine company responding to a four alarm fire costs more. Every ambulance racing death to the hospital costs more. Every Humvee on patrol costs just that much more. We are paying a war tax every time we fill the tank but none of it goes to defray the cost of our war. The lion’s share of the proceeds flow into the accounts of our sometime friends and outright enemies and the rest swells the profits of big oil.

There doesn’t seem to be a glimmer of light shining at the end of the tunnel. The experts are forecasting $100 a barrel oil in the near term. No matter how the insurgent body count rises in Iraq the car bombing campaign goes on and the casualty count of Americans and Iraqis mounts up. One Marine platoon was wiped out in the fighting yesterday and violent anti-American riots erupted in Afghanistan. It is a heavy price we are paying to make Ahmed Chalabi Iraq’s oil minister.