Merit-bound Alley

The American Friends Service Committee has analyzed and released a cost breakdown of how much the war in Iraq is costing the american taxpayer. This information, taken from the work of Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist and Linda Bilmes, a former assistant secretary of commerce under Clinton, shows that the war is costing us $720 million a day, or $8333 per second.

According to their subject blog, How Would You Spend It?, “For that price, the United States could have provided: 34,904 Four-Year Scholarships for University Students; 1,153,846 Children with Free School Lunches; 6,482 Families with Homes and 163,525 People with Healthcare. HOW WOULD YOU SPEND IT?”

Personally, I would buy all the Transformers ever made, new in their perfect, unopened boxes, then put a video up on Youtube of me openeing and playing with every single one of them. I would then post links to this video on all the collector websites and listen to the sweet cacophanous melody of nerdy screams and embolisms. But I’m kind of an asshole that way.

That being said, I would like to point out a quote in TFA:

“Either you think the war in Iraq supports America’s national security, or not,” said Frederick W. Kagan, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “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.”

Well, that’s just blind, isn’t it? Anyone who has played a game of Civilization knows that resource management can make or break a country. Hoping that our country remains secure will not create the money needed to run an increasingly unpopular war. Please also ignore the fact that there is no indisputable evidence that we are safer for continuing it. Add that to this new breakdown which tells us that we could hous 6500 families a day, feed 1,150,000 children a day or put 35,000 people through 4 years of college a day.

Listen folks, I’m all for preventing another 9/11, but you have to be aware of the cost not only in dollars, but in lives. Imagine the good that could have been done with this money. It’s a shame that Bush’s God didn’t tell him to feed the hungry, rather than go to war; I wonder how much this administration would be spending if he had.

Bush announces that 5700 troops will be coming home before Christmas!

Better news: Not in wood boxes.

I really hate it when my most cynical opinions are proven correct. Specifically, that religion and patriotism are used too much in the U.S. as a blindfold and a justifier of ignorance. Here, we have a family in Pagosa Springs, Colorado who put a wreath on the outside of their house that contained the peace symbol. I guess it only stands to reason that the people would assume this family was not supporting the troops, what with that peace symbol out there. I heard that churches are replacing “peace on earth, good will towards men” with “freedom in Iraq, good will towards patriots only”.

The anti-Iraq point is understandable if I lower myself to that standard of ignorant dementia, but satanic? The peace sign? How many years would an American have to live under a rock to not recognize the peace sign? This, better than any other example I could provide, proves that the vocal idiots of America can create any divide they want, so long as they are loud enough.

Now, some may say that everything turned out okay because the neighborhood group dropped the fine. However, this incident will leave a legacy of distrust in that small neighborhood because of the insipid foolishness of a vocal few who have no qualms with lowering the curve for the rest of us as long as their views are not challenged.

A CNN story describes Army Sgt. Willsun Mock, a 23 year-old who was killed in Eastern Baghdad one weekend in October, number 11 that weekend, and had befriended a CNN reporter back in 2004. Sgt. Mock was young, but knew that the war had changed him, as it has so many. He looked forward to going home with excitement and apprehension, fearing that the war had changed him too much from the man who had left home for Iraq years before.

This is an important reminder that every time the number dead in Iraq increments, it’s not just some soldier who has died. It’s someone’s father, mother, son, or daughter that is making it’s way back to America. A girl or boy mourned by family who will hear a bugle play Taps, receive a flag folded into a tight triangle, then watch their loved one be lowered into the ground in a grave that will be decorated with a simple, white stone.

Whether you are for against the war, reading news about it or writing it, don’t ever make the mistake that the numbers are horrible in and of themselves. Each increment is a life ended, and a family thrown into turmoil. Each one is months or years of mourning for people who just can’t believe they’ll never see their friend or brother or sister again.

Sgt. Mock was so much more than number 11 that weekend.

Please take a moment today to thank someone who has served for us.