Iraq costing 5.9 billion/month

[vervilledeb1]

The war in Iraq is costing Americans $5.9 billion per month and this is not including the cost of worn out or destroyed equipment. Also, this is not including the cost of training Iraqi and Afghan forces according to an article in Yahoo News.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060217/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq_6;_ylt=Aj5W4.w.pvxrFctd82KszLUUewgF;_ylu=X 3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--

The White House submitted a $65.3 billion war request yesterday. They also submitted $20 billion in new hurricane relief funds.

IMO, too much money has been wasted and its a shame. I wrote up an article posted in the Lets Roll section of this board on the money wasted for the hurricane relief. People making up false social security numbers for the $2000.00 Fema cards while the people who really needed it were having such a hard time getting these. I know for certain this was happening as I was one of the people trying to help the folks that were having such a hard time. Some of these folks still have not seen any money.

As to the money spent on the wars..what about our own people? What about the families that are living in houses with no electric and heat? What about the families that are trying to get aid but cannot because their income is that $1 over what is considered the poverty level? How do we explain this? IMO we should not be spending money on training others forces we should be helping the people here that need it most! WDYT?

[NicoMoon]

Oy Debby, you ask the tough questions!

Here's my short version response. A lot of people have made and will make billions on both Katrina and the Iraq war. They are both huge profit opps, if you happen to be in the right business.

We're in the wrong business, those of us who pay taxes on wages to provide the money that goes to the mega corps who make the money on these adventures.

I'm all for national defense, and everything, but I think the problem is that we're not in Dubya's small tight circle of good buddies, so we take the direct hit, and at this point, I wonder if even God knows whether the Iraq war is a good and necessary thing or not.

Oh well, the "good" news is that our next President will have a nice war chest of their own to hand around to their good buddies.

Where's the end of that line, I'd like to go stand in it. Or better yet, how about some decency and honesty from our politicians? Or even better than that, how about an awake and aware electorate, and some real candidates for a change?

Count me "Fed Up".:mad:

[WileyCoyote]

We should not be in Iraq. It's costing us beaucoup bucks, lives and political capital and creating more terrorists who hate us. Saddam could have been isolated and the people of Iraq could have revolted if and when they were ready. If they were never ready, that's their problem. You can't force freedom on people.

The evidence is very strong that the Bush Administration had planned to attack Iraq from the get-go. Besides Dubya's possible motives of avenging his father and increasing profits for the oil industry, a group of neo-cons wrote a letter to Clinton in 1998 begging him to oust Saddam. The signatories on the letter included Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton, UN ambassador, Elliott Abrams of Iran-Contra infamy, national security advisor under Dubya and more. http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

Though Dubya didn't sign the letter, he brought many of the signatories into his cabinet. And then there are Cheney's ties to Haliburton which just happens to one of very few companies equipped to handle the issues unique to Iraq and has (Haliburton) been indicted in various over charging scams. Haliburton gets rich while we can't afford to provide the soldiers with proper armor and secure vehicles. But it's the anti-war people who are labelled unpatriotic and accused of not supporting the troops.

Then the idiot (Dubya) lowers taxes, mostly for the rich, of course. I don't believe taxes were ever reduced before during a time of war. The tax cuts may or may not have produced some short-term benefit for the economy, but long term, we are looking at massive deficits, funded by our good friends, the Chinese.

Looks like Tony Blair is just as guilty as Bush in falsely propping up the rationale for war: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1592724,00.html

[morgan]

The problem is most of the politicians are in it for the money. Some are more subtle than others. We have seen it in past administrations, there are always hidden agendas and they always use some sort of excuse to justify their actions. This does not apply to just the USA btw. I think we are in a time where a real honest politician who actually wants whats good for the country is very hard to find these days.

[Faucet]

I think we should spend a couple of money and send a couple of people instead of going all out on forcing people to freedom. Infact that is a bit ironic because we are taking people's freedoms of choosing for their own country to get the "freedoms". Someone should tell George Bush to mind his own beezwax

[vervilledeb1]

I think we should spend a couple of money and send a couple of people instead of going all out on forcing people to freedom. Infact that is a bit ironic because we are taking people's freedoms of choosing for their own country to get the "freedoms". Someone should tell George Bush to mind his own beezwax

There are enough people in our own country that could use the extra help. I was watching the news this morning and in my state they are shutting off the gas on people. I would love to know what percentage of these folks are single moms with children.

[vervilledeb1]

President Bush announced in a speech to the nation that American troops will remain in Irag for years. A future president will decide when to bring the troops home.

The President also rejected the idea that Irag has fallen into a civil war. Also, more than 2,300 American troops have died in Iraq. Is this really needed? And how much more is this going to cost the American people?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

[vervilledeb1]

"George, your reckless and wanton foreign policies killed my son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, in the illegal and unjust war on Iraq. Helping to bring about your political downfall will be the most noble accomplishment of my life, and it will bring justice for my son and the hundreds of other brave Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis your lies have killed."

The above is written by Cindy Sheehan. I have been following her story. And, IMO, she is one very strong and courageous woman.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/IraqCoverage/story?id=1740981