I didn’t want June to pass without acknowledging that the Afghanistan War is now the longest war in American history. That’s right, it has surpassed the
infamous Vietnam War. This fact, along with the U.S. bent towards military aggression, should make us pause as to what the budgetary priorities should be, given the financial crises the country is still in. The American people should also be taking a more assertive role in challenging and reshaping our corporate-led government so that it actually meets the needs of the majority and not the greedy few.
The firing of General Stanley McChrystal by President Obama and bringing on General Petraeus did little to change the military strategy in Afghanistan.
Nicknamed “The Runaway General,” McChrystal has been openly disagreeable with the Obama Administration over military operations in Afghanistan. The goals of Operation Enduring Freedom are about as elusive as Osama Bin Laden. If you don’t know what the goals are, you don’t know what success is. Yet, the government keeps adding more dollars and more troops to the mix with no regard to the historical fact that NO invading country has claimed victory for long in Afghanistan.
The U.S. often brags about its democratic government as it criticizes military dictatorships. I contend that we are looking less distinguishable from these countries. We need not be fooled by Obama not wearing a military uniform.
Last December, President Obama added 30,000 more troops to the region. There’s now about the same number of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been over 105,000 civilian casualties in Iraq and an estimated 10, 000 in Afghanistan. Every civilian casualty adds to the increase of bad feelings about the US and worse, has become a rallying point for the Taliban and Al Qaeda. According to the National Priorities Project, $1.05 trillion dollars has been spent on these two wars with no end in sight.
Nearly 60 percent of taxpayers’ dollars goes to the military budget, while important human needs like education and health care get a pittance. This country has military presence in 156 countries with about a quarter of a million personnel. This is not necessary or sustainable given the current finances of a government whose first cuts to the budget are those which directly affect the health and welfare of its citizens. People are not as afraid of terrorists (despite the propaganda machine) as they are of being homeless, jobless and sick without health care.
The war economy impacts the state and local budgets. We must start paying serious attention to how our tax dollars are spent. Our message to Congress must be to downsize the military operations so that we can re-direct those billions of dollars to education, to the creation of new jobs that move a real green economy, to health care and to rebuild a housing market that’s not built on greedy schemes. The same message can also go to the state and local governments.
Adding our voices to how we maintain a civil society that takes care of its citizens will be critical as the proverbial ax is raised over and over again to the line items for human needs. We can start locally by being at the St. Louis Board of Aldermen when they vote on July 2 to charge citizens for trash pick up. I’m sure once we look at the city budget, we can trim some fat in other places.