For the War in Iraq but Against the Recession? Talk About Nonsensical

With all of the money being spent on the war in Iraq, I wonder just how many of the people that are in support of the war are complaining about a recession here in America?

According to a CBS/NYTimes poll on pollingreport.com, 34% of the people favor the war and 64% oppose it. So you have 34% of Americans in favor of the war in Iraq, yet according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll, 89% of Americans feel that the economy is an extremely important issue, and according to an Associated Press poll, 61% of the public thinks that we are in a recession.

Now you can misconstrue the numbers anyway you want to, but that sounds to me like there are a good number of people out their complaining about their pocket books but are encouraging the U.S. to stay in Iraq!

The estimates range, but roughly $190 billion dollars is what Congress may allow on war spending this year.

Now I understand that the U.S. is making gains on the ground and have had recent success with the surge. But wouldn't such success mean that we could withdraw quicker as opposed to staying longer?

All I have heard during the Republican election campaign is that with the "surge working" we now have more of a reason to stay in Iraq.

That makes absolutely no sense to me. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want to, but I am forced to believe that the money being budgeted for the war is getting handed out to old buddies and political affiliates of Congressional members on both sides of the isle. At least parts of it, anyway.

As bad as that sounds, it's the only thing that makes any sense. I mean how does the U.S. lose track of $9 billion and try to counter my belief? And why is Congress is busy investigating Roger Clemens over steroid use instead of trying to figure out how $9 billion just disappeared into thin air?

The money that is being lost in fighting this war could easily end this recession. This chump change stimulus package for $150 billion (money from which the government probably borrowed from China) that gives some individual Americans $600 or less is not going to stimulate the economy. Do President Bush and Congress not read their history books? Tax rebates didn't help stimulate the economy in the 90's, and it's probably not going to work this time around.

However, had the government elected to use the $500+ billion that has been spent on the war to this point on the economy, then maybe we could fight this recession. Heck, we probably wouldn't be in a recession to begin with.

In addition to that $500+ billion and according to TheStar.com and a study done my Harvard's Linda Bilmes and Nobel-prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, upon factoring in the associated medical cost, higher oil prices, and replenishing the military, the war will end up costing America $2 trillion. Do you have any idea what could have been done with $2 trillion?

Forget about saving the economy. For the price of its GDP, the U.S. could have bought Mexico!