What Is 10 Billion Dollars A Month?

The people who say we should cut off war funding/foreign aid are the first ones who would have a poo in the carpet if we actually tried to spend that money on domestic projects.

 

So because that did not happen we should continue to spend billions?

 

It's time to go. I agree with most of the sentiments already posted.

 

I think some of it comes down to...

Is it better to try to police the world when our economy is rapidly collapsing or would it be better to pull our resources out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and wherever the fuck else we are and put those resources toward making this country great again?

I don't think we're making a blip over there and it's time to cut our losses.

 

I did too. This is the money shot:

“The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. Congress — and in the American body politic writ large — to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense,”

Currently USA funds 3/4 of overall NATO budget.

 

Put in a draft. No exceptions. When Congressmen have to send their kids to Afghanistan and Iraq, then we'll see a serious discussion.

 

Certainly could have some merit. During Viet Nam war I remember that the draft seemed to cause a lot of angst.

I doubt that there is even one politician in Washington that would be willing to take that idea on. It's the proverbial 3rd rail.

 

I seem to recall a certain political party kept screaming "Cut and Run!" every time someone suggested we get out of Iraq.

And NOW it's too expensive to be in Afghanistan, which was hosting the terrorists that attacked us? Why all of a sudden a change of heart?

Getting out of Iraq? Definitely. We shouldn't have been there anyways.

 

Rangel introduces bill to reinstate draft

January 07, 2003

Rep. Charles Rangel introduced a bill in Congress Tuesday to reinstate the military draft, saying fighting forces should more closely reflect the economic makeup of the nation.


http://articles.cnn.com/2003-01-07/politics/rangel.draft_1_military-draft-rangel-poor-fight?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS

 

Right. Because the rich and monied have never figured out ways around the draft. No exceptions and all.

 

The President wants to bring the troops home yet, politically, he cannot.

He is 17 months from re-election. He cannot bring hundreds of thousands of military members home to a country that isn't hiring. Unemployment will continue to uptick and 2012 will be flooded with stories of how a sergeant who kept his men from roadside bombs can't get a job at Starbucks to feed his three kids.

That's political suicide for him to risk.

If unemployment was 6 or 7%, our troop drawdown would be much more dramatic.

As for Mr. Biden's daily line during the 2008 campaign, "$10 billion dollars a month in Iraq!"... once the stimulus passed, $10 billion a month became a forgotten phrase by early 2009. 10B a month was chicken feed by that point.