Have you noticed the press is beginning to print an Afghanistan war casualty count? Deja Vu?It would seem that July was the deadliest month for troops thus far. Seventy perished including 42 Americans.
The General in charge is requesting more troops and Obama is seeking $83.4 billion in a supplemental funding war bill. This is in addition to the $172 billion it has already cost us. When all is said and done the tally is expected to reach the $1 trillion mark. Does that figure sound familiar? Health care overhaul anyone?
I'm curious as to where this money is to come from? We're already over our heads in debt. How much more can we take on?
The Huff Post had an interesting breakdown as to just what $83.4 billion would get when broken down to the state level of obligation. Z.P. Heller, who wrote the piece, used his home state of Pennsylvania as an example. It could provide
- 725,689 people with health care for one year.and the list goes on.
- 460,546 Head Start places for children for one year.
- 46,575 Elementary school teachers for one year,
As was true in Iraq, this is a different type of "war". I don't see even a hint that we can be more successful where others have failed. I see no more of a strategy to extricate ourselves from this one than Bush had for Iraq.
I'm just suggesting that we need to be aware that while a multitude of domestic overhauls are draining us dry, Obama's war is a contributing factor.
It's costing us money we don't have and men who are becoming more and more in short supply. Something is going to have to give. I wonder what it will be. Just what are our priorities? The Afghanistan people or the American people? Or re-election in 2012.
2 comments:
On this we agree. This is a guerrilla war and those are impossible to win..especially in that terrain. The Russians fought there for decades before giving up and going home.
The fault lies with the American people. I was in a very small minority in September and October 2001 when the Bush regime was planning to retaliate in Afghanistan against the 9/11 Attacks. I was against sending troops into Afghanistan from a historical perspective. Both the British and the Russians fought in Afghanistan and ended up giving up. Its hard to argue with history. The Afghan people are tough fighters who can patiently outwait a foreign invading army.
We can't leave, though, if we don't want the Taliban to regain power. If we go, the Taliban will return to power and it would make everything we did over the past eight years a complete waste.
Americans are going to have to suck this one up and stick with it. Hopefully those who supported this war in the first place will think twice when another Republican president tries to manipulate our country into another costly war. Americans don't seem to have a problem questioning a Democratic president's desire for war...but if a Republican president talks about the need for war, gosh...its treasonous for any American to question his motives!
Americans really should learn the history books. War is expensive and its the ultimate pandora's box. It never turns out as rosy as projections have it. Its messy, costly, and deadly. It should only be used as a last resort after every single effort at diplomacy and international sanctions has failed.
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