Hostile Takeover
Chapter One
Taxes
In the spring of 2003,1 American soldiers began massing on Kuwait's border with Iraq, preparing for what some experts feared could be a horrendous Iraqi counterattack2 should President Bush order an invasion. It was a tense time in a nation both on the verge of war and strapped for resources to defend itself against terrorism thanks to massive budget deficits.
Every day, it seemed, there was a reminder of how serious the situation was. Color-coded alerts warned that another 9/11 could occur at any moment, as police and fire departments reported severe budget shortfalls; more than a year after the World Trade Center attacks, air marshals were still protecting only a fraction of the 35,000 daily flights in the United States;3 in an urgent plea to the White House, federal officials warned that budget shortfalls were leaving the nation's nuclear material dangerously unprotected from al Qaeda;4 and possibly worst of all, many soldiers awaiting the command to invade Iraq did not have adequate body armor to protect them.5
So when House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) gave a major speech on March 12-just weeks before the invasion-t ... read full excerpt from: Hostile Takeover ebook
