http://nationalpriorities...Itemid=182

Ouch!

watching those numbers made me think for a second that i was filling up at the gas station.

It's always nice to hear about all the problems government could solve with the amount we're spending Iraq. That is until you consider it's only 3-4% of the federal budget over the last four years.

What problems is government solving with all that OTHER money?

Not ripping on you Rick, but 3 - 4% really doesn't sound like much. So lets figure in the loss of human life. 3500 dead Americans now, and for what? Lots of dead fathers, son's, brothers and uncles and friends. Women too. That repulses me in itself. Maybe I am just a pacifist, but I see very little anywhere in this world that makes me ok with 3500 dead Americans. No revenge yet, (so the 9-11 argument won't hold water), as Osama is still sleeping in a cave somewhere. I don't personally feel any safer myself. And we give up liberty's for security almost everyday now. I would be ok with our government burning that money if it meant that all those dead Americans were still with us. And yes. I one of them liberal crackpots that is undermining the troops, according to Limpaugh and Insanity. If wanting each and every one of them to come home intact is undermining them, then count me in for lots more of that horrible undermining behavior. It is in fact, possible to support the troops and oppose the mission. I do it everyday myself. Good soldiers do what they are told to do. But when one of our soldiers has seen enough, and wants to walk away from his VOLUNTEER position, he gets creamed on Fox News for weeks. And sent to prison. That might just be the definition of undermining our troops. The attitude that it's only 3 - 4% of the budget is pretty pitiful. I suspect that we could do lots of good things around our country if we had 3500 not dead Americans working on project's around this country. Maybe helping rebuild New Orleans and the surrounding area? Thats lots of man hours over 4 years. And I bet that most of them would come home alive. We seem to be in a habit of blowing some pretty much defenseless country all to hell, then spending my very hard earned tax dollars to rebuild them. That seems a little backward to me. How many billions do we spend each and every year training our soldiers the most efficient way to kill people? Granted, we need some form of military. But our new national motto seems to be "Thru force comes fear" No wonder we are pretty much alone up here on our pedestal.
Been a long day. I needed that rant. Thanks for letting me do it. Again, no personal attack Rick. Just a million miles from your position to mine. And you are absolutely entitled to your opinion, as am I. But we fought our war for freedom many years ago. What does everybody else learn if we fight their war for freedom for them?

I didn't start the number game, I was simply putting some perspective on it. Outside of that, you can hold whatever opinion you like, as can I.

Going over the whole argument on pacifism again is pointless. Most our soldiers know that those lives weren't spent for nothing, and that's all I have to say about it.

I'm sorry, but 3,500 soldiers is a non-event. In fact - it is pretty remarkably low.

So, Let's play numbers:
Since the war in Iraq, which has killed 3,500 Americans, what else has happened?

10,000 people have died from coal consumption to feed our computers [world wide, typically 5,000/year]
6,000 Americans have drown
80,000 Americans have died in car accidents
300,000 Americans have died from alcohol related incidents
1,000,000 Americans have died from Tobacco injuries (which we still seem to support as a socially acceptable behavior...)

Other fun facts:
Diabetes and obesity are rapidly overtaking tobacco in death toll (as I myself expand exponentially...)
0 Americans have died from Marijuana usage

Please verify these facts with the CDC's website


So, while it is my opinion that we should not have invaded Iraq, I will not allow the [extremely biased and undereducated] media to raise my blood pressure over an insignificant war-time loss of life. Keep in mind that their job is NOT to educate, but to entertain.

Furthermore, we cannot change the fact that WE DID invade Iraq and the worst thing we can do is fail to support the President's efforts there. His success my friends is ours - like it or not. It is our responsibility to put the media spin aside and support this war 100% until it IS successful. Our very visible split on this issue is gravely damaging our already very poor reputation in the world and a little unity might go a long way toward finishing this job properly. I wonder what would happen if we focused our anti-war energy on, say, smoking cessation?

I am curious what the non-combat related soldier death toll is? I'll bet it's higher that we think. We typically lost several a month in Pearl Harbor to drunk driving accidents alone...

Another "statistical" thought to ponder...
3,000 people lost their lives in the World Trade Center

In exchange, 10,000,000 Afghan women can show their faces, go to school, and have jobs again.
(and 200,000,000 Americans virtually lost any remaining "freedom" they had)

Maybe we are just a little TOO sensitive on this issue and a little TOO apathetic on the others...

(crawls back into protective shell before beating begins...)

Not much of a beating due, but I do have to take exception to one point you made. Does anyone really believe that if we all turn into cheerleaders, yelling "go team" everyday that we have soldiers at war, that anything is going to change? I suspect that any moral problems among our troops has nothing to do with our perceived lack of support. More likely, they are frustrated with the job. Just because Fox News is a right-wing cheerleader network, doesn't mean that the rest of us need to fall in "lockstep"
We train our soldiers to do the job at hand, and frankly, if they need 300 million cheerleaders at home, then we have much bigger problems than any of us are aware of. I just don't understand this right-wing idea that I can't support the troops and not support the mission. The right still brings up, ad-nauseum, the aspirin factory that Clinton blew up. But we all still support the troops that were involved in that little mistake don't we? How many on the right were or are still supportive of that mission? I suspect none do, because it supports the right's constant habit of excusing bad behavior by pointing to other bad behavior. "Bill Clinton did it!" "Bill Clinton did it!"