costly wars

and speaking of......costly wars. The following article perfectly reflects my sentiments concerning our continuing involvement in the two no-win wars and relentless meddling in the affairs of other sovereign nations. The article appeared as a Letter to the Editor in the Greensboro News & Record, July 15, 2011............ Costly Wars Contribute to Escalating Deficit --- Another Washington hoax. The so-called “debate” on reducing the $14 trillion debt is being used to cut vital programs of education, Medicare and Social Security. Any budget “deal” won’t end obscene tax breaks for the wealthy or massive corporate tax loopholes that enable many corporations to pay no taxes.Meanwhile, what is the true monetary cost of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan? President Obama proclaimed that the wars have cost $1 trillion.

A recent nonpartisan study from Brown University puts the cost of the wars at $4 trillion, plus another $1 trillion of interest for this war debt.

Starting with Republican Bush and continuing with Democrat Obama, the government has invaded sovereign countries to defend U.S. oil companies. These criminal wars, based on lies, inflict unspeakable crimes against other peoples. The same study estimates 225,000 (mostly civilians) killed by direct conflict and 7.8 million displaced. Now the war comes home through austerity programs directed at workers, the poor, the elderly and the young as bailed-out Wall Street laughs all the way to the bank.

Mark Dimondstein
Greensboro, NC