Letter: Costs of Bush’s imperialism are staggering

Thursday, July 3, 2003 | 8:58 a.m.

Even as the Bush administration devises an Orwellian justification for the absence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, it is quietly revising its mission objectives in Iraq. Of the predictable consequences of Mr. Bush's Baghdad bait-and-switch, two are particularly worthy of attention.

First, veterans of the current Iraqi occupation will compose much of the personnel pool from which our law-enforcement system will recruit. These men will come to their new jobs with practical field experience in disarming civilians and carrying out other critical garrison-state functions.

The second dreadful consequence of the open-ended Baghdad mission will be a steady and worsening hemorrhage of national power, wealth and prestige. One foretaste of the costs of Imperium was offered when President Bush quietly signed a measure raising the ceiling on the national debt by nearly $1 trillion. Ultimately, those costs will prove too much for our nation to bear alone. In such fashion does swaggering imperialism set the stage for compelled interdependence.

It is reasonable to imagine a not-too-distant time when American servicemen and their families, weary of the burden of empire, would eagerly embrace transferring that burden to the future world government, the United Nations.

KEN HOVEY