Via the HuffPuff:
“The United States Agency for International Development is seeking applications for an Assistance Agreement from qualified sources to design and implement a social and economic stabilization program impacting ten Strategic Cities, identified by the United States Government as critical to the defeat of the Insurgency in Iraq. The number of Strategic Cities may expand or contract over time. USAID plans to provide approximately $1,020,000,000 over two years to meet the objectives of the Program. An additional option year may be considered amounting to $300 million at the discretion of USAID. Funds are not yet available for this program.”
The only “social and economic stabilization program” that will work is bringing our troops home. That alone will end the insurgency, and motivate the Iraqis to start taking care of their own security.
The most important “Strategic City” isn’t in Iraq, however: it’s Washington, D.C., where Congress is being buffeted by the rising tide of antiwar sentiment in this country — and where nothing less than sending in tanks to secure the U.S. Capitol may be enough to do the trick.