- 550,963 People with Health Care for One Year OR
- 2,385,106 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year OR
- 23,915 Public Safety Officers for One year OR
- 18,911 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year OR
- 201,177 Scholarships for University Students for One Year OR
- 4,007 Affordable Housing Units OR
- 500,391 Children with Health Care for One Year OR
- 160,123 Head Start Places for Children for One Year OR
- 19,226 Elementary School Teachers for One Year OR
- 16,907 Port Container Inspectors for One year
I am rendered speechless. We need to bring all our resources home: our soldiers, who don't deserve the horrors they've been handed; and our tax dollars so we can repair the soul of our nation by providing the services we lose daily due to Bush's arrogance.
15 comments:
with all that loot, or a quarter
can u imagine our public school products since the war started if it was used efficiently to maximize utility = educate?
What the war has cost us is both measurable and immeasurable. It's an ongoing outrage.
Here's the thing. I'm not a Bush apologist but I believe that there are truly dangerous people in the world who hate the U.S. and will try to hurt us if they can. Evildoers, if you will. I actually agree with the President on this. Just look at the leadership in Iran. However, where I disagree with Bush is in the way you deal with this. I think that continuing to address social, educational, and other issues in the U.S. should be our first priority. The strength of this country has always been that people can look to us as perhaps the most successful democracy in history. We need to provide that example. If we would have used the money spent on the war to develop an energy policy, invest in education and research, we would still be the envy of the world. Now we've just increased the anger toward us. I'm not saying that there's not a time for military action. Clearly there is. Perhaps Afghanistan was one of those time. But Iraq has been a disaster and simply don't see how we get our without looking bad our appearing like we lost, neither of which does anything for our standing in the world.
It's mind boggling! They have it broken down by State and then by individual tax payer. It blows my mind that with a friggen straight face they can justify the unjustifiable.
What you never hear is that this nightmare economic fiasco that is just beginning and will get a lot worse only looks this good because the scums are cooking the books and the trillions we owe Chine are being put off until the scum is out of office. It also stinks that if our kids survive his wars present and future they and our grand children will be suffocated by his debt. It sickens me!
Yeah, average patriot. Here's what I got:
Taxpayers in Congressional District 30 (Waxman great Congressman) will pay $1.6 billion for total Iraq war spending approved to date. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:
* 648,392 People with Health Care for One Year OR
* 2,806,877 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year OR
* 28,144 Public Safety Officers for One year OR
* 22,255 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year OR
236,752 Scholarships for University Students for * One Year OR
* 4,715 Affordable Housing Units OR
* 588,877 Children with Health Care for One Year OR
* 188,439 Head Start Places for Children for One Year OR
* 22,626 Elementary School Teachers for One Year OR
* 19,897 Port Container Inspectors for One year
Now, DivaJood, if we were to take every congressional district in California (the state that is paying the MOST for this war, we could probably solve the civil and social problems of the entire country.
Thanks for this sobering post.
Drdon, who cares if we look "like we lost." We lost the day we set foot in Iraq. Look at out national debt, increasing prices of fuel and food, and failure to start doing something about it despite the fact we had the technology over 30 years ago. From my perspective, there are dangerous people in the White House who don't care about the people they ostensibly serve.
Clinton erred by not heading off the problem, and Bush blithely attack a nation that was no threat. He even lied to the American public about the danger. U.S. policy MORE dangersou people in the world that hate the U.S. than before we attacked the Middle East. Terrorism has increased exponentially.
Don't mean to be a curmugeon, but I'm enraged that I have to spend my tax dollars for an unecessary war.
Fuckers!!! Is it okay to use that word when referring to the Bush administration?
Yippee! Gore announces for Obama tonight at 8.
As long as Divajood is OK with what I consider an appropriate term for this administration.
I got an email about the Obama announcement, AAP. I was at work and practically fell out of my chair wanting to cheer.
I got off a plane from Chicago three hours ago. Waiting for my bag to arrive, which apparently went to Dallas instead of Los Angeles. Hmmmm. For this they charge $15.00 extra.
Torrance Stephens, between the wasted money on the war, and that dispicable "No Child" program, education is for the uber-wealthy. This is a real crime against humanity, this denial of education. We are teaching kids to take tests rather than to think.
Robin, what really gets me is that GWB destroyed every company he headed. And he's done the same with the USA.
Drdon, I am not a pacifist. There are times, truly, when the use of force is justified. But it is a last resort, not a first choice. Yes, there are people who would do harm to the USA; but in the last 8 years, the person who has done the most harm to this once great nation has been George W. Bush.
Jim, it's staggering the amount of waste this war has created. Wasted lives, shattered by too many tours of duty; injured physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally. Wasted money that could have solved the health care crisis. Wasted money that could have solved over crowded classrooms. Ugh. And, yes, Gore endorsed Obama.
Stella, I think California should ceceed from the nation and become our own country. We could have solved our own energy crisis; we would not be sending kids to Iraq to do the cowboy's dirty work - ugh.
Robert, yes. Fuckers, fuckwads, fuck fuck fuck. They are the worst fuckers ever.
Edumacation and health care are for liberal pansies. Blowing The Other up is the only way to be safe!
It worked in Afghanistan!
Stella
I was so happy to hear that I wanted to go out and yell. I am beginning to think we have a chance if we can keep Obama alive and this election is not stolen again in any number of growing ways.
Robert you bet it is!
Stella and Diva Sadly it will get much worse as these wars and everything else will get much worse. I keep telling my lifer sons to relax because they are in it for the long haul and Iran or more is next! Also I believe regardless of who is elected they will have to continue to fight! It gets worse but we have to stay together and keep trying to make a difference!
Well, again, I'm not justifying the war. My point is that we are there, like it or not, and all the bitching about it isn't going to change that. What we need now is to find a way out that makes sense. Stella says, maybe accurately, that it doesn't matter if it looks like we lost. Well, to a certain extent, it does matter. It at least matters with respect to any sort of lasting stability in Iraq.
Yes, we should have never been in Iraq. We all realize that now. Some people realized it from the beginning but the majority of Americans, probably as a result of misinformation or just plain ignorance, supported it. We now know it was a big mistake that is costing us tremendously in both human and financial capital. But no matter what we thought of Saddam Hussein, there was stability in the country while he was in charge. It may have been due to fear and oppression but it was stable nonetheless. To replace that with the chaos that exists now would be, I believe, very harmful to the region and maybe the globe.
So I think that, as much as we all hate it, we now have to stay until something is accomplished, no matter how tenuous. Whether we like it or not, we started the war. We detroyed the infrastructure of that country and altered the lives of its citizens for at least a generation. No matter how much we all blame Bush, and he deserves the blame, he's not going to pay for the reconstruction of Iraq out of the Bush family fortune. It's going to come from American taxpayer dollars. I don't like it, you don't like it, but that's what's going to happen. So we need to find a way to move forward. The election offers a first step in a different direction but we then have to demand that our leadership develop a strategy to complete what we need to do and get out. The money is gone folks. And much more is going to follow.
Randal, who needs edumacation anyways, that's for the French. Oh, Afghanistan, the home of all those secret caves, and didn't we arm and train the Taliban back in the day that Russia tried to wipe 'em out?
Jim, I hope your sons are safe, I really do.
drdon, when we left Vietnam, it looked a whole lot like we lost. That's because we did. We lost our moral compass, we lost our innocence, we lost lives, we lost dignity and we lost in every other imaginable way - again, because we should never have been there in the first place. I agree that bitching about being in Iraq is counter-productive, unless we can seek solutions - and we have indeed lost already. This election is crucial, because if McCain is elected, we will be fighting in Iraq for a long, long time. The November election indeed offers a first step in a new direction, IF Obama is elected.
Yes, the money is gone. You are absolutely right on that and yes, a lot more is going to follow. That, my friend, is a tragic waste.
One of the reasons I put this post up was because I believe we have an obligation to go to our Representatives and demand that they work for their individual districts - California has indeed borne the financial brunt of this war, and will continue to do so. If we all go to our Representatives with facts, and demand change, we can indeed begin that change sooner.
Thanks Diva! I am sorry to say my youngest son is also trying to get over there as a combat engineer. Makes you want to scream!
OMG, divajood: Stella, I think California should ceceed from the nation and become our own country. I have a ton of links on my blog supporting secession. (Hope all of them are still working...)
AAP, I didn't vote for Obama, but he's the party choice and I'm going to do everything I can to support his campaign. My candidate never had a chance. What do I care? All this means is we've got many great leaders from whom to choose to be VP and sit on the cabinet.
Dr. Don, I agree with your assessment. What that plan is, I don't know. But, we clearly lost in Viet Nam, and the U.S. went on. And everything divajood said about loss is right on target.
I'm repeating divajood, because in this case, it's good to remember we were able to extricate ourselves from 'Nam. However, this war is different in many ways.
I've talked to a lot of soldiers, most of whom assure me we're there to stay. We've spent billions on the Green Zone alone. There are many more pemanent structures in Iraq.
As for that shithole McSame, he's talking about drilling oil off the coast of California. Don't get me started...
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