Iraq....again....

Can there be anyone who is surprised at the growing chaos in Iraq?  I won't even try to sort out the various Sunni versus Shia hostilities.  When the U.S. pulled out both Joe and I wondered how long it would be before there would be a sectarian civil war.  The surprise has been that it didn't start earlier. I understand that the President has ordered 300 additional troops to secure American interests, i.e., the American Embassy. Good luck to them. I wonder if we will have another rooftop evacuation from the Embassy. As far as I can think, the only possible solution would be to break Iraq into 3 independent areas: the Kurds in the north, the Sunni in the center, and the Shia in the South and East.  We shall see.  

The same thing will happen as soon as we pull out of Afghanistan. 

What a tremendous loss of time, money, and lives.  It is my opinion, we should stop with the military intervention here, there, and everywhere.  I have no objections to humanitarian aid such as medical clinics or educational programs. But we are not the military police for the globe, besides we have enough needs not being taken care of right here in the United States. 

Five more

 



 

 

I read this morning that 5 more Americans were killed in Afghanistan.  That is 5 more families who will never again see or talk with their father or son or brother.  I wonder how many children will now have no father. And if 5 were killed, most likely there were at least as many wounded. The news rarely tells us how many arms or legs were lost or how many blinded or burned.  They said it was "friendly fire" from an air strike by "coalition" forces. What on earth are we doing there?? Can we not just stop this madness??

 

 

Write your Congressmen, Senators, President, & newspaper. 

Meditation

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower

Support for War in Afghanistan Falling

According to the HuffPo, support for the continuing war in Afghanistan has fallen below levels for that in Iraq and Vietnam.  What puzzles me is who on earth supports continuing pouring lives and tax dollars into that pit?? Oh yes, our Secretary of State does, perhaps the President does--it's hard to tell. 

According to the article "gains made by the United States would be significantly lost by 2017 if the United States and Afghanistan do not make a new security pact allowing troops beyond the deadline "

So if we leave in 2014, all the lives lost and ruined over the preceding 13 years will be for nothing by 2017. What a waste, what a tragedy!

Iraq - The One Decade Anniversary

Much is being written and said on this unbearably sad anniversary about the totally useless, unnecessary, immoral war that we perpetrated on the people of Iraq. I can hardly bear to read or listen to it.  Words, written and spoken, are so antiseptic, so removed from the horrors, the suffering, the destruction as to be in another world.  I see pictures of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld and I have an overwhelming desire to tear the picture into tiny pieces and burn the pieces. 

4500 young Americans dead, 10s of thousands with missing body parts and messed up minds, untold numbers of Iraqis dead or injured. 

Here are two of my many earlier blog posts on Iraq and Afghanistan:

1/11/2009

We need to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now.

I don't have a clue as to what I can do to promote this idea but I am going to start finding out. 

It's a little thing but I sent an e-mail to change.gov

I'm going to find a way to work on this.

10/27/2009

Afghanistan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102603394.html?wpisrc=newsletter

One person speaks out against the idiotic war in Afghanistan and it makes the Washington Post. Hallelujah! I suppose I should be grateful for that. But I'm not--I am furious that we are such utter sheeple that we are being led down this primrose path AGAIN. God how I wish we would bring back the draft so that everyone would have a stake in whether to continue this madness or not. How I wish we were forced to pay in full every year what this costs. But of course we won't--we will continue the war because you really don't have to send your children to be killed or maimed and we can continue with our tax cuts and piddling around with health care because we simply borrow more money from China. 

There is no "win" in Afghanistan; we will simply keep pouring more beautiful young men into that bottomless pit and the ones that aren't swallowed up will be sold to the highest bidder to repay all the money we borrowed to finance the war in the first place.

Same goes for Iraq.

Will we continue on the same path of perpetual war? Iran? Korea? I don't know. It makes me sick to think of it.

Afghanistan (yes again)

I just checked my previous posts on Afghanistan and found the my first post on it was March 1, 2009. So for three solid years now I have been yelling and screaming that we should Get. Out. Now.  Maybe, just maybe 3 years from now we will be out.  I suppose it depends on who wins the election in November. At least we are (mostly) out of Iraq.  I wonder who we will invade next??

Kick Us Out of Afghanistan? Please!

Haven't we already spent enough money, lives, and limbs? Isn't there anything that we need to be doing right here within our own borders?


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/asia/afghanistan-koran-burning-protests-enter-fifth-day.html?_r=1&hp

Let's arm the Syrians!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/world/middleeast/mccain-and-graham-suggest-helping-syrian-rebels.html?hp

Then we can send in a limited number of troops to train them.  And advisors to advise them. Then we can provide air cover.  And then we can...Wait!  Haven't we been here before? and before that? 

Thank goodness, McCain lost in 2008 or we would be hip deep in another war.

It's over.

American troops are leaving Iraq.  What a terrible waste of lives and limbs and money.  I wonder what the Ministry of Perpetual War has in store for us next.  And unfortunately we will probably go marching patriotically right into it...again.

A Letter to the President

Dear President Obama,

I am writing to you today to urge you to end the decade long war in Afghanistan and to remove U.S. troops from Iraq. As we move closer to their removal, there will be immense pressure on you to leave some troops longer. I urge you to resist these pressures and to move steadily and consistently to a complete end to these military involvements.

Respectfully,

I am so distressed over so many things in government today that I feel completely overwhelmed. Social Security and Medicare being dismantled, health care overhaul being shredded, lack of civility, compassion, and compromise in budgeting.  What can I do? Where does one start?  Well, for me right now the thing that tears at me most is the terrible toll these wars are taking on everyone. So I am committing myself to writing one letter each Sunday to President Obama and one to my Congressional Representative letting them know that I vehemently object to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

I wish there were an organization of Old Ladies Against the Wars but I've Googled it and nothing comes up.  I'd even fly me and my electric scooter to Washington if there were any anti-war marches planned but there doesn't seem to be anything there either.

So you do what you can.

Drones versus Shuttles

I suppose it is just as well that the shuttle program is ending because we have no money for space exploration.  Of course, we have money for wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and who knows where else.  Better drones anyone?? I think I'll go bang my head against a wall for a while.

National Debt Ceiling

Time to pay the piper.  Funny how the people who got us into 2 wars with no thought how to pay for them other than by giving upper income folks lower taxes (hmmm), these folks are now willing to throw the country into default to get us out of debt.  No, it's not funny; it is abominable.  I keep thinking how much good we could have done with the money wasted in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia. How much medical care given, how many schools built, how much land restored, how many people alive and whole. What a waste.  And now it is time to pay the piper. It won't be pleasant.

President Obama's speech on troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

This evening President Obama will give a speech outlining his plan for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.  I am worried.  In all probability, he will plan to remove 10,000 by the end of this year. That still leaves about 123,000 troops still there and another 100,000 contractors (according to those who should know).  10,000 is not nearly enough. We should have 30,000 (the surge) out by the end of the year, another 50,000 out by the end of 2012, and the remaining 50,000 by the end of 2013.  Cut the $$$ off to the contractors over the same period.  End the nation building in Afghanistan and start the nation building at home.  If anyone wants to support charity to Afghanistan, I'm sure they can find organizations doing charitable work there to donate to. 

I get extremely annoyed when I hear that we have to stay in Afghanistan because Pakistan has nuclear weapons.  So, are we going to stay until they don't have nuclear weapons??

I will be watching the speech tonight.  I am prepared to be very disappointed.  I wish I knew of an organization like Old Ladies Against the Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia.....I guess the acronym would be too long...

Memorial Day

It really bothers me that people accuse me of not supporting the troops or not loving the USA when I write that I oppose the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I do support the troops and I do love my country but I have opposed Iraq from the beginning and I wonder how long we will continue to pour money and lives into both.  Will we continue for another year, two, ten, twenty years before we leave.  Will we have accomplished anything lasting when we do leave?  Has it been worth the loss of fathers and sons or the loss of legs or eyes when we decide that we have had enough?  Then again I wonder will we leave those only to go into Yemen, Syria, North Korea??

The Wars Series Week #2

We need to get out of Iraq & Afghanistan.

Suicide bombers killed 28 on Sunday and 33 on Tuesday in Iraq. I think it will be a bloodbath when we leave no matter if it is 10 months or 10 years from now. And there is no chance of a good outcome in Afghanistan either.

The Wars Series Week #1

We need to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

I wonder how many weeks I will have to run this series.

Thought for the week:
"Almost anything is easier to get into than to get out of." ~ A. Allen

The Wall Street Financial Meltdown

I did our quarterly financial statment today. While it wasn't pretty (our retirement accounts are down by $36,000), the meltdown didn't wipe us out by any means and we won't be needing any of it to be withdrawn for another 5 years. Our debt on the house (our only debt) dropped by $14,000 which certainly brings a smile to my face. We have good health, good jobs, and a deep & abiding love for each other; we live quietly and have modest expenses. I am very displeased with the way that mortgages and other forms of credit were freely poured out with no regard for ability to repay which caused this mess in the first place but I am not overly concerned with our situation.

Now for what I more concerned about: Our nation has developed an "I want what I want and I want it right now" mentality. Get it now and pay for it (maybe) later. We squander our resources and shackle ourselves with debt to worship at the altar of More. We do it not just as individuals but as a nations--useless wars and foreign interventions. Don't we have enough to do at home? Couldn't we husband our land and water? Couldn't we tend our poor, sick, and elderly? Couldn't we provide a loving, nurturing education for our children? Wouldn't we then be in a better position to help others?

Riot On!!

Call me crazy but I am delighted with the uproar over the Wall Street bailout. It seems that Americans are waking up from the stuporous state we have been in these past years. Riot On!! Whether or not the bailout goes through, I am overjoyed that massive numbers of people are slapping their representatives around and giving them an earful of just how fed up they are.

Now maybe, just maybe, people will be awake enough to notice the cost of what is going on in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan. One of the few times I’ve really agreed with Charlie Rangel was when he proposed a military draft. As soon as all the mamas and pappas see that their little Gap clad darling may be sent to get his arms or legs blown off, there would be massive resistance to it.