Back to the Schools

Oh man. I don't think I've seen anyone make a serious effort to argue that ongoing school construction endeavors in Iraq outweigh the fact that we aren't achieving any of our mission objectives, but apparently Chris Muir didn't get the memo that these talking points are inoperative:



I'm pretty sure that these reconstruction projects have, in fact, largely been halted. And, of course, a lot of the refurbishing of public buildings is necessary precisely because the war has been so destructive. But all that aside, the level of bad faith here is really mind-boggling. If I proposed that the United States appropriate $87 billion to build 306 schools and refurbish 364 additional schools in Ecuador, would conservatives be applauding that? But that's what congress appropriated in its 2003 supplemental for Iraq. The bill the president just signed appropriates $95 billion for just the next six months. Does Chris Muir intend to get behind a $95 billion disease eradication program? It only costs $1 to give someone a measles vaccine and "approximately 410,000 children under the age of five die globally of measles each year."

But, of course not; take the value as a talking point away and conservatives don't care about education in the developing world or global public health at all.