What Is 10 Billion Dollars A Month?

He's done that several times simply to make a point. Rangel has the clout to get away with that kind of stunt (along with far worse ones, as we learned last year).

 

I want to vomit when I see conservatives suddenly become anti-war when a Democrat is in office. Prior to Jan. 2009, there wasn't war or military action that the right couldn't wait to get behind.

 

I found this one site where it shows GOPers speaking out against the Iraq war.

http://zfacts.com/p/521.html

Yet, it took them FOUR YEARS to come to this conclusion. Four years of our soldiers getting hurt, dying, and billions of dollars spent. Not to mention, the thousands of Iraqis killed, and ruined lives.

The original Iraq War resolution vote saw just one GOP senator, and six in the House voting against it.

http://usliberals.about.com/od/liberalleadership/a/IraqNayVote.htm

 

Got anything on Afghanistan since this is what thread is about?

 

No, because pretty much nobody from that side of the aisle had ever called for withdrawal from Afghanistan until recently.

 

We' ve accomplished everything we are going to in Afghanistan. Now we are at point of diminishing returns.

Time to pull the plug.

 

2003 Bush tab for Afghanistan $14 bil

2011 Obama tab $112 bil

 

Apple, 2003, http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Apple_(AAPL)/Data/Revenue/2003

Orange, 2011 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/03/idUS49380+03-May-2011+HUG20110503

 

And your point is ?

 

That's just a tad misleading.

 

The British couldn't civilize Afghanistan. And they civilized nearly everything else. Afghanistan is a melting pot of ethnicities, tribal feuds and ass-backwards people who have been killing themselves when there is no occupying foreign force. Screw 'em. Let 'em kill each other. If we find Al Quaida bases there, hit them with drones. No reason to spend another dime on that stupid place.

South Korea can take care of itself. I can see a reason for us to have bases in Japan, but Europe? Where's the threat to our interests? There isn't one. Russia? Don't make me laugh. NATO has absolutely no reason to exist. Withdraw our peacekeeping troops from Kosovo and the Sinai while we're at it.

The Libyan war is useless. If we used the rationale for that elsewhere, we'd be dropping bombs on Iran, Syria, Yemen, on and on and on. Bring our forces, with the exception of the Japanese-based forces home, to CONUS. Let Europe defend itself.

 

When people say, "bring the troops home," I'm not sure they realize.

Bases in Europe, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and in Asia are necessary if we want to be able to project power globally.

Our navy needs ports. Our air force needs bases and in-flight refuelling. Our army needs pre-stagged equipment (Because moving an M1A1 is difficult!).

So I'm not judging whether or not we need bases in Europe or Japan or Korea .... but if we give those up, we give up our ability to respond to situations across the globe.