Mosamania
ELITE MEMBER
- Jun 19, 2011
- 10,171
- 5
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- Location
The bottom line on our Afghan and Iraq wars has arrived. Who knows better than those whove been there? Pew Research survey shows a third of post 9-11 veterans say neither war was worth it. Only a third say both wars are worth it. Over half of them say its time to come home and deal with Americas problems instead. And this is while these wars are still going on, with their buddies in harms way. This brutal honesty will get worse as time goes by.
Veterans might prefer friends home alive and in one piece. An Oct. 6 Watertown Times editorial said Iraqi law suggests its time to bring the troops home. What possible consequences could occur from being at war for a decade while cutting taxes, mostly for corporations and the uppermost incomes?
Former Reagan economic guru David Stockman in a New York Times op-ed said this is how the GOP (already) destroyed the U.S. economy. Borrowing for war costs, we owe China $800 billion, so they demanded we ship millions of our jobs to them. We owe Saudi Arabia $450 billion, our friends sued by Lloyds of London for funding the 9-11 attacks on us. Our outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says our other ally, Pakistans intelligence agency, is helping kill our troops in Afghanistan.
Our wars costs have begun shrinking our middle class into powerlessness. A third of U.S. young adults raised middle class have now slipped into working class or poverty. Only 55.3 percent of our adults 29 and under have a job. A fourth of U.S. children are on food stamps. Only a tenth of U.S. women due to retire soon have a pension.
Of 1.6 million troops in combat over these 10 years, over 600,000 have qualified for disability compensation. As the lifespan bill for this may reach $900 billion, we may soon see the power structure turn its back on the troops, too.
The House is already fighting the employ veterans part of the Jobs Bill. The GI pension system is under review. Miami wants no new Veterans Affairs facility in its back yard. Colorados resisting having to send absentee ballots to deployed troops. We had to fight the VA to get them to help patients in their hospitals register to vote.
Should these wars not work out so well, a way may yet be found to blame the troops, at least those below general rank, part of our 99 percent. The troops know that some of the civilian citizenry have taken to the streets back home. When both the troops and their economically oppressed fellow Americans back here realize that weve all been taken for a ride, perhaps the chickens, and the chicken hawks, will come home to roost.
Roland Van Deusen
Clayton
Watertown Daily Times | Cost of two wars has destroyed the economy
Veterans might prefer friends home alive and in one piece. An Oct. 6 Watertown Times editorial said Iraqi law suggests its time to bring the troops home. What possible consequences could occur from being at war for a decade while cutting taxes, mostly for corporations and the uppermost incomes?
Former Reagan economic guru David Stockman in a New York Times op-ed said this is how the GOP (already) destroyed the U.S. economy. Borrowing for war costs, we owe China $800 billion, so they demanded we ship millions of our jobs to them. We owe Saudi Arabia $450 billion, our friends sued by Lloyds of London for funding the 9-11 attacks on us. Our outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says our other ally, Pakistans intelligence agency, is helping kill our troops in Afghanistan.
Our wars costs have begun shrinking our middle class into powerlessness. A third of U.S. young adults raised middle class have now slipped into working class or poverty. Only 55.3 percent of our adults 29 and under have a job. A fourth of U.S. children are on food stamps. Only a tenth of U.S. women due to retire soon have a pension.
Of 1.6 million troops in combat over these 10 years, over 600,000 have qualified for disability compensation. As the lifespan bill for this may reach $900 billion, we may soon see the power structure turn its back on the troops, too.
The House is already fighting the employ veterans part of the Jobs Bill. The GI pension system is under review. Miami wants no new Veterans Affairs facility in its back yard. Colorados resisting having to send absentee ballots to deployed troops. We had to fight the VA to get them to help patients in their hospitals register to vote.
Should these wars not work out so well, a way may yet be found to blame the troops, at least those below general rank, part of our 99 percent. The troops know that some of the civilian citizenry have taken to the streets back home. When both the troops and their economically oppressed fellow Americans back here realize that weve all been taken for a ride, perhaps the chickens, and the chicken hawks, will come home to roost.
Roland Van Deusen
Clayton
Watertown Daily Times | Cost of two wars has destroyed the economy
