Mirror Iraq; Doubles, Doppelgangers, and The Dark Side

Joseph Stiglitz asserts that the true cost of the Iraq War will be $3 trillion. I am not sure whether to believe him, a nobel laureate, or Paul Wolfowitz, who said the cost of the Iraq War would be $1 billion. I tend to Stiglitz's view. Now, the cost of the Bail Out is $700 billion. Since all governmental estimates are grossly understated, we may increase this 100% right off the bat, the new estimate being $1.4 trillion. We know even this should be a bit short, especially since it is a freebie for politicos who have their hands in our pockets, searching for spare change, so another $200 billion is in order. Then there are trips across country, to Cancun, housekeeping, pencils and pens, and rubber bands. This should be rather a big deal, since the issue is a big deal. Then there is malfeasance and criminality. Nothing goes on in the modern day without the old disappearing funds trick; absolutely nothing. It is rather as if accounting standards were merely suggestions or hints from Heloise. When it comes to real money thrown around by real governments, the first casualty of war is fiscal accountability. Hence, no ruling class worth its salt would let a $700 billion bail out get done without a 25% to 50% take off the top: we do things big here. Therefore, the Bail Out will cost, ah, let's see...plus $30 for incidentals...and sales tax...$ 3 trillion. The same as the Iraq War. It is the Mirror Iraq War in the domestic sector. How truly Borgesian. It should be an infinity of mirrors: the climate change trillions, the Afghanistan War trillions, and so on, and so on. I never really understood the notion of a mirror, or a doppelganger, or a double, or twin identity, and why it was so spooky to various writers and various times. Now I know. The dark self comes out as these expensive debacles: Mr. Hyde pops out of Dr. Jekyll. If there is merely 1 piddling little war, one does not think much of it. War is war, everyone has a war every so often. It is, as our gallic friends say, la condition humaine. When there are two wars going on, one begins to take notice. When there are two wars, our rights are being eroded, and the so-called financial brains have brought the nation almost to utter collapse, one wonders just how many monsters will pop out from our poor Krel-like minds. But I understand the evil twins, triplets, quadruplets, and so on. I have lived long enough to see the USA embody its direct opposite. I understand Dr. Caligari's somnambulist, a quasi-twin of Caligari, an evil entity. I see it. Now may Conrad Veidt rest in peace, for he is no longer troubled by being the carrier of an obscure message: we carry within us the seeds of our destruction. These seeds of destruction, being part of us, do not alert our immune system; they fool the body and soul into believing they are part and parcel of the entity; a cancer. (This is where a good transcendental morality helps: check everything against the eternal measure of goodness. If it fails, remove it from your consciousness.)