Day: March 22, 2013

What Price Iraq?

We have just celebrated the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War…..a war started on lies, cost 4400+ troops their lives and an almost incalculably amount of wounded soldiers……..and then there is the loses on the Iraqi people……mind numbing numbers…..but with that all said just what will be the price tag for this war?

Newser) – How much do you think the war in Iraq was worth, in dollars? Was your figure more or less than $7.7 trillion? Because that’s how much the war might end up costing, according to a new study from Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. So far, the government has spent $1.7 trillion on the war, but that’s not counting $490 billion in veterans’ benefits, which could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next 40 years once interest is added in, Reuters reports.

And that’s just the cost in treasure. As for the blood cost, the study estimates that the war killed at least 134,000 Iraqi civilians, and contributed to the deaths of four times that many people. Add in security forces, journalists, and humanitarian workers, and the number is somewhere between 176,000 and 189,000. The US got precious little in return for its money, the study concluded, adding that the $212 billion reconstruction effort mostly failed, with fraud and waste accounting for most of the spending.

The saddest part is not about the war is that were lied to to go to war…….it will be the cost to returning vets…….but the biggest thing is that charities are helping these people when the government owes them more than they can ever pay……the government sent them…..the government is responsible for the care afterwards……please I am not bad mouthing the charities…just there should be NO need for them.

At what point does the country accept the damage they have done to its people and accept the burden of caring for vets…..but instead all vets are good for is a few electioneering slogans and campaign props…..I have NO respect for a country that treats its people as such……and a government that turns a blind eye to the suffering of the vets does not deserve my support……

Meanwhile the pigs that started the war are appearing everywhere trying to rewrite history and save their legacy….and people are letting them get away with it….

And Then There Is Syria

For two years now the two sides have been battling each other for control of the country……each side has accused the other of one atrocity after another……and we here in the West must believe what we choose to believe…..but now there is a real push to have the world believe that one side or the other is using chemicals weapons (WMDs)…..sound familiar?

A senior Israeli official said Wednesday that it is “apparently clear” that chemical weapons were recently used in Syria, and that the alleged attack will be a main topic of conversation with visiting President Barack Obama.

The statement by Yuval Steinitz, the newly appointed minister of intelligence and strategic affairs, conflicts with U.S. assessments that there is no evidence behind accusations traded the day before between Syrian rebels and the Bashar Assad regime of a chemical weapons attack in a village in the north of the country.

Even thought there is little evidence of such an act……we have the usual neo-cons rattling the sabres……

Two top foreign policy lawmakers, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), separately called for the White House to step up military action in Syria, with Graham arguing that Obama should consider having American troops “get on the ground” to help secure chemical weapons sites.

Later in the evening, the heads of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), joined forces on CNN to say that they believed chemical weapons had likely been used, without offering evidence. They said the White House should consider military action.

“If in fact we prove beyond a shadow of a doubt they have used these chemical weapons … I think we are morally obligated to do something about their ability to deliver these weapons,” said Rogers. “And if that was a very limited military strike to do that — again, I think we’re morally obligated to do that.”

Interesting that all this bravado comes on the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war……….what could be the outcome?

My guess would be aimed at Iran who is an ally of Assad…..if the West were to go into Syria militarily then Iran would have the justification they may need for an all out attack…….Syria would just the beginning of another war that no one wants to pay for and no one wants responsibility for once the decision is made……