Bush's game playing

I read in this morning's New York Times about Bush's disdain for the welfare of the troops, whom the administration puts in harm’s way without first ensuring that they’ll have the necessary resources. He sent them into war without proper equipment and fails to provide proper care for the wounded when they return home.

Funding for the war has never been in the Bush budget. Its a tricky way to avoid accounting. Bush got funding by asking for supplemental money. As long as a G.O.P.-controlled Congress could be counted on to rubber-stamp the administration’s requests, you could say that this wasn’t a real problem, that the administration’s refusal to put Iraq funding in the regular budget was just part of its usual reliance on fiscal smoke and mirrors. But this time Mr. Bush decided to surge additional troops into Iraq after an election in which the public overwhelmingly rejected his war — and then dared Congress to deny him the necessary funds.

He is not bold. He is reckless.