"Daydream Believers" and "Three Trillion Dollar War"

Washington Post, Book Review, March 16, 2006

"Daydream Believers" by Fred Kaplan. Wiley. 246 pp. $25.95 IRAQ: Five years later. An analyst diagnoses a case of wishful thinking among policymakers. Reviewed by Anne Marie Slaughter, dean of Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs at Princeton University. It is known that Pentagon declared several days ago that there is no link between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

What is the Tab? Two economists attempt to calculate the price of US intervention in Iraq: "The Three Trillion Dollar War" By Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes. The authors should be commended - not disparaged for their painstaking work. Carlos Lozada reviewed the book with the penetrating conclusion:"In one way or another, we will be paying for these costs, today,next year, and over the coming decades - in higher taxes, in public and private investments that will have to be curtailed, in social programs that will have to be cut back," they write."One cannot fight a war, especially a war as long and as costly as thhis war, without paying the price." My comment: Can we ponder and put our mind at ease if we are taxpayers with insightful thoughts? It is high time that we can elect a new President to reorder priorities for the best interest of the American people after November 2008.

The above references would be useful to understand Sino-American Economics or US-China relations in terms of military outlays. Food for thought for all folks,indeed!

Francis Shieh a.k. a. Xie Shihao. March 17, 2008