You break it, you own it

Those were the words then-General Colin Powell uttered in response to war-hawk critics of the 1991 Gulf War, when they said we should have “finished the job” and taken out Saddam at that time.

Those words were true then, and they were just as true twelve years later.

There never was any justification to attack Iraq.  Never.

We broke a country, and now we own it.  The president lied to the American people when he told us the reasons for going to war.  He lied when he said there was evidence that Iraq was an imminent threat.  He lied to the world when he said we wouldn’t become an occupying force in Iraq.  And he’s been lying ever since, spinning a tangled web of deception, delusion and denial.

You break it, you own it.

The same words apply to the men and women you send into combat.  If you’re going to ask someone to risk life and limb for your cause, you’d damn well be ready to pay for the results.  Bush, Cheney, and the rest of this misbegotten kakistocracy owe the men and women they’ve maimed more than just an apology.

They owe them lifelong health care and a place to live.  No combat-injured troop should be reduced to begging and living on the streets, as many of our nation’s best and bravest are right now.

They owe the families of the dead no less.

You break it, you own it.

Time to pay up.