I have read many quotes over the years, but it is this one made by Frederick W. Kagan who is a scholar of the American Enterprise Institute that makes my blood boil, "If you think national security won't be harmed by withdrawing from Iraq, of course you would want to see that money spent elsewhere. I myself think that belief, on a certain level, is absurd, so the question of focusing on how much money we are spending there is irrelevant."
It is thanks to think-tanks such as AEI that we find ourselves embroiled in this war against humanity in the first place. He was quoted through an article published in The Washington Post which cites that we the American people are paying $720 million each day for this war.
The amount of money being spent on this war which ultimately comes from ‘we the people’ reminds me of a Ponzi scheme. This is how Wikipedia defines such a scheme, “A Ponzi scheme usually offers abnormally high short-term returns in order to entice new investors. The high returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises (and pays) require an ever-increasing flow of money from investors in order to keep the scheme going.”
This war is the ultimate Ponzi scheme in which defense contractors are making out handsomely as well as the politicians beholden to them. These defense contractors will entice new investors as they see the bottom line increasing as more invest in them. And yes, to keep this war going it will take an ever-increasing flow of money.
Many including yours truly have reported on how much this war is costing you and me the American taxpayer each and every second as this killing machine goes on.
As the Post cites what else could be paid for with these funds such as, “homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity, according to the American Friends Service Committee,” Do they think that will get our attention? So far it has not as many have reported over the years what could be done with this money to better humanity.
Setting aside what could be spent with this money, when Kagan said “the spending is irrelevant”, I think of the human lives lost on both sides is very relevant. He has the luxury of saying that as he sits in whatever space this think-tank affords him. While many Iraqi families have been devastated along with family members of our soldiers, both he and his family are alive. He is far removed from the carnage presently going on within Iraq.
As he cites "If you think national security won't be harmed by withdrawing from Iraq,” One must question him; just how secure will we be if we do not withdraw? Through this egregious war, it has cost the lives of over one million Iraqis and if you do not think that the Arab world will forget that, you have another thing coming to you. I think we should be concentrating on that figure as opposed to the amount spent to keep this Ponzi scheme going.
It has been reported in the past that through this war, we have displaced millions more Iraqis and if he thinks the Arab world will forget especially those displaced, he is sadly mistaken. I have read stories in which Iraqi girls as young as nine-years-old are turned into prostitutes and if he thinks this will not be answered back, it will be.
This assault upon the Iraqi people pre-dates our illegal invasion back in March of 2003. Before that we imposed sanctions on Iraq. While Kagan’s quote made my blood boil it is this one made by former Secretary of State Madeline Albright makes that blood evaporate into steam “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.” This was her answer to a questioned posed by Leslie Stahl in a Sixty Minutes interview on 5/12/96. Stahl asked, “We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” So the lives of half a million children murdered were worth it? As you will see, this assault upon the Iraqi people is an equally shared between both Clinton and Bush.
Speaking of those sanctions, George Galloway was called before our senate subcommittee to testify on May 17th, 2005. While you can watch the entire 47 minute testimony, it was this statement made by him that really hit the nail on the head, “Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies.”
People seem to keep forgetting that over two million lives have been lost in Iraq and not just the one million lost since our illegal invasion. This is the very definition of a holocaust, genocide; ethnic cleansing or whatever term fits best.
Now if we do not think that the $720 million figure the Post reports will hit us and I hate to think of the loss of human lives on both fronts comes down to money, the L.A. Times has reported, “President Bush plans to ask lawmakers next week to approve another massive spending measure -- totaling nearly $200 billion -- to fund the war through next year, Pentagon officials said.”
While this article cites what this money will be spent on such as, “The new trucks can cost three to six times as much as an armored Humvee.” They also delve into other items to protect our soldiers. Let us be clear of one thing, those moneys will be going into the pockets of the defense contractors profiting off of this war and again, the politicians beholden to them. The government has to keep this Ponzi scheme going at all costs and even if that cost is human lives.
Let us get real and state there is no profit to be made by the political elites to provide homes for most Americans, health care for children which does not involve HMOs and other note-worthy causes that have been ignored through these many years. Our politicos are owned by Halliburton, Kellogg Brown and Root, Raytheon, McDonald Douglas and the company that inserted Blackwater mercenaries into the mix.
At this point, I am at a loss when it comes to when and if this war will truly come to an end. In the meantime, our political elites will continue to throw our money into this Ponzi scheme and at the end of the day; lives will have been lost to all of us forever. What is not lost is the profit margin made by those listed above.
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