President Obama ended his war speech tonight by saying, “We as Americans can come together behind a common purpose.” He also said our “cause is just” and “our resolve is unwavering.” If these phrases are more than soaring rhetoric, I have a few questions:
When will this military venture become something more than a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight?
Working class men and women fighting these wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) are either killed or broken mentally and physically through repeated deployment to these god-foresaken battlefields. I don’t see the upper classes and politicians who are making war decisions sending their children to this particular war. If Afghanistan is so important to our national security, then we need to begin the draft now. I am increasingly disgusted by the sentimentalizing, romanticizing, and patronizing of our “brave men and women in uniform,” many of whom are in uniform because they needed a job. Does this self-indulgent society really care all that much about the mental and physical damage and stress experienced every day by the troops on the ground in Afghanistan? Or is it “out of sight, out of mind?”
When will the upper classes begin paying their fair share of taxes so that our quality of life can stop its decline due to war spending?
If the middle classes and working classes continue to pay a disproportionate share of the taxes needed to fight this war, and the upper classes continue to profit while bearing a lower tax burden, that won’t seem to me to be “coming together behind a common cause.”
What happens if an Afghan Army and Government are not able to pick up the fight in 18 months?
There is an old labor movement refrain to promises from politcians: “We will get pie in the sky when we die by-and- by.” It is likely that we will attempt to buy off villagers (the Petraeus approach), sacrifice the lives of several hundred American troops and god knows how many of the villagers. We will have hundreds of Americans with severe injuries that most of us will never see…and wouldn’t want to look at anyway. At the end of 18 months, we will be coming out. Yea right.
Dave,
Glad I worked through the speech.
Thanks much for your comments.
President Obama: You gave the wrong speech Tuesday night…this is not what 70% of voters want
President Obama what is so important about proving yourself to be a war president as being a peace president honestly displays more guts
Some thoughts that were not necessarily presented which come from closer sources to the situation:
* More War: Obama Unveils Plan to Send 30,000 More Troops to Afghanistan President Obama announced Tuesday night that he would send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan in the coming months, bringing the total number of American troops occupying Afghanistan to nearly 100,000. Describing the war as “not just America’s war,” Obama vowed to start bringing the troops back home by the middle of 2011.[includes rush transcript]
* Rep. Kucinich on Afghanistan War: “We’re Acting Like a Latter Day Version of the Roman Empire” As President Obama unveils his plan to escalate the war in Afghanistan, we speak with Ohio Congressmember Dennis Kucinich. “The United States is going deeper and deeper into debt,” says Kucinich. “We have money for Wall Street and money for war but we don’t have money for work…for healthcare. We have to start asking ourselves, ‘Why is it that war is a priority but the basic needs of people in this country are not?’”[includes rush transcript]
* Vietnam Vet, Scholar Andrew Bacevich on Obama War Plan: “The President Has Drawn the Wrong Lessons From His Understanding of the History of War” Andrew Bacevich, a retired colonel and a Vietnam war veteran who spent twenty-three years in the US Army, responds to Presidnt Obama’s plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Bacevich is a professor of history and international relations at Boston University and the author of “The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism.” [includes rush transcript]
* Nir Rosen: “We Managed to Make the Taliban Look Good” Nir Rosen, independent journalist and fellow at the NYU Center on Law and Security, responds to President Obama decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan. Rosen has covered both Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003. His latest articles cover the current state of the US occupations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.[includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/
Excellent commentary David. Keep up the good work.
Campaigns go too long,spend way too much money and do not necessarily provide the best available. It is up to us to stop the nonsense at the voting booths. Replace 95% of all elected officials every 4 years for the house and every 6 years for the Senate.
Not voting sends the wrong message and changes nothing.
Lets’s demand a new system and vote in Fair Vote America : http://www.fairvote.org/irv/
Demand a change on the next ballot because you know our legislators will NOT change the corrupt campaign finance process.
The big money candidates are more beholden than ever to corporate special interests due to the very long nature of campaigns. How do they have time to do the job they were elected to do?
We need public financing of campaigns. Citizens cannot afford special interest money campaigns for it is the citizens that get left out. Let citizens vote on this issue.
http://www.publicampaign.org/