Not theirs to give.

"Our people will never forget those who stand beside Iraq, particularly in these terrible times," stated Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari during a June 24 joint press conference with President Bush at the White House. "You have given us something more than money--you have given your sons, your children that were killed beside our own children in Iraq. Of course, this is more precious than any other kind of support."

Despite the deepening morass in Mesopotamia and growing disillusionment with the war on the part of both Congress and the public, Mr. Bush remains dauntless. Referring to suicide bombers like those who killed at least a half-dozen Americans in Baghdad on the same day--as well as wounding 11 female Marines--Bush declared: "They figure if they can shake our will and affect public opinion, then politicians will give up on the mission."

"Altruism" of the sort extolled by President Bush--a president squandering money earned by taxpayers, and sacrificing the lives of their sons and daughters, on behalf of foreign strangers--is a moral abomination and a crime against constitutional republicanism. Nearly two centuries ago, Congressman Davy Crockett learned a critical lesson when a constituent rebuked him for supporting a "compassionate" welfare measure not authorized by the Constitution.

Our money, the angry voter reminded Crockett, was not yours to give. The same is emphatically true regarding the lives of the young Americans that Bush and his cronies have wasted in their war of supposed liberation in Iraq.