Can we blame the Iraq war for the looming recession?

With a hat tip to ThinkProgress...

Knowing about this afternoon's agreement on an economic stimulus package, it's now time to think about how we got to this point...

Before Bush decided to avenge his father’s shortcomings and the war in Iraq started, a plethora of economists predicted that soaring oil prices could possibly send the US economy spiraling into a recession, and during yesterday’s press briefing, White House Press Tool Dana Perino was asked about the tie between the current U.S. economy and the Iraq war.

Not surprisingly Perino quickly dismissed the reporter’s question and stressed that the U.S. economy has been “very strong” (it hasn’t been strong for a couple of years Dana, wake up and smell the recession!) and added that the money for the Iraq war was necessary to “take the fight to the enemy” after 9/11 (despite the oft-repeated FACT that Iraq had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11!!!!!)

Want proof?

CBS MarketWatch; “If war with Iraq drags on longer than the few weeks or months most are predicting, corporate revenues will be flat for the coming year and will put the U.S. economy at risk of recession, according to a poll of chief financial officers.”

Robert Shapiro, Commerce Undersecretary under President Clinton; “If the conflict wears on or, worse, spreads, the economic consequences become very serious. Late last year, George Perry at the Brookings Institution ran some simulations and found that after taking into account a reasonable use of oil reserves, a cut in world oil production of just 6.5 percent a year would send the United States and the world into recession.”

If you read those and have a brain of your own to use, it’s safe to say that the Iraq war is, at the least, partially to blame for the looming recession.

Now if only this administration, and this Congress for that matter, had listened to them years ago, maybe we wouldn’t all be bracing for hell…