Hersh on Obama and foreign policy

[j_b]

[video:youtube]

[j_b]

"Farmers from the district of Marja, which since February has been the focus of the largest American-led military operation in Afghanistan, are fleeing the area, saying that the Taliban are terrorizing the population and that American troops cannot protect the civilians."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/world/asia/17marja.html

[Nitrox]

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Attention_Whore

 

 

[billcoe]

I LOL! But I thought the story and the link were good this time though! Isn't the real question, when can we get out of Asscrackistan, and what will it look like when we leave?

 

BTW, I lost heart when Karsi literally stole the last election via massive fraud. F*ck him.

[j_b]

[video:youtube]t0_TtYQEDTo

 

“What George Orwell wrote about in 1984 has come true. What Eisenhower warned us about concerning the ‘military-industrial complex’ has come true,” the congressman argues. “War is a permanent feature of our societal landscape, so much so that no one notices it anymore.”

 

Grayson proposes to change this circumstance with a bill he has introduced: “The War Is Making You Poor Act.”

 

“The purpose of this bill is to connect the dots, and to show people in a real and concrete way the cost of these endless wars,” he explains.

 

To make the cost of war real for working Americans, Grayson performs a simple calculus:

 

“Next year's budget allocates $159,000,000,000 to perpetuate the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. That's enough money to eliminate federal income taxes for the first $35,000 of every American's income. Beyond that, (it) leaves over $15 billion to cut the deficit.

 

“And that's what this bill does. It eliminates separate funding for the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and eliminates federal income taxes for everyone's first $35,000 of income ($70,000 for couples). Plus it pays down the national debt.”

 

The congressman is betting – with good reason –that the key to opening up a real debate about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is to make real the cost of these occupations to American families.

 

“The costs of the war have been rendered invisible. There's no draft. Instead, we take the most vulnerable elements of our population, and give them a choice between unemployment and missile fodder. Government deficits conceal the need to pay in cash for the war,” explains Grayson, with a reference to the mounting trade deficit with China. “We put the cost of both guns and butter on our Chinese credit card. In fact, we don't even put these wars on budget; they are still passed using 'emergency supplemental'. A nine-year 'emergency.’

 

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/25-3

 

[ivan]

hard to disagree w/ that

 

the last line is particularily good!

[j_b]

I expect deficit hawks to rush to support Grayson's "war is making you poor act", don't you?