IRAQ, a FINANCIAL VIET NAM?

Our United States has been at war with Iraq since March 2003, at a cost of almost 500 billion dollars. A mind staggering amount.

What are we fighting for? That has been the question asked for the last four years. Is it freedom, oil or to depose a terrorist regime? And why do we stay if we are not winning or accomplishing anything but to lose young soldiers at an alarming rate. Didn't we learn anything from Viet Nam when we walked out of there, and are we heading for such a dilemma again?

MN PUBLIUS Archive Photo

The first part of the problem America loses sight of is, that war funding, for both Iraq and Afghanistan has to come in the form of supplemental appropriations outside of the normal federal budgeting process and that means it comes directly out of our individual pockets, a fact which is not adequately being addressed.

The figures have the cost of this war reports say is at 500 Billion dollars (US) and growing. According to an Associated Press article published September 23^rd 2007, (AP) "In four years, the United States has spent close to $500 billion on the war in Iraq - more than the total for the Korean War and nearly as much as 12 years in Vietnam, adjusting for inflation. The ultimate cost could reach $1 trillion or more." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/15/iraq/main2574891.shtml

Amazing figures, as I curiously search the cost of the fighting on the Internet and the first thing that came up in my search for the amount spent, was many times a decry about removing our troops from their position in Iraq and arguments over the fact of withdrawing... and its consequence. One such has an entire web page against know through this brief quote;

In the annals of American history, military withdrawals must be the worst form of foreign policy, as they are associated with failures in planning, objectives and execution. In the last two centuries, Vietnam and now Iraq - with the recent vote on the Senate-backed plan for a pullout - are two examples of American impolitic. No matter how rationalized or justified, withdrawal is the most irresponsible strategy in American geopolitics.

http://www.vietamericanvets.com/Page-PointofView-military_withdrawals_are_the_wor.htm

Originally articled: shorter version of this article has appeared on The San Francisco Chronicle in the following link: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2007/04/16/EDGEBOS6S21.DTL

To gather a consensus from military both active-duty to retired veterans alike, "it would be akin to a surrender again to the dull-witted arrogant son's of bitches that don't think we're worth spit anymore." "We've lost who we are and the world knows it," my words.

Alan Greenspan says it rightly so that the U.S. should be less worried about the cost of war and look forward more to taking care of itself economically in the coming years than worrying about funding for our situation in Iraq, "Our situation with Medi-Care and future Social Security benefits should be paid more attention to. We looked at it once in 1983 and saw a disparaging decline and knew we should be doing something about it then but didn't, and we're seeing it worsen and know we should be doing something now to curtail it, and that's where I think our worry should be." Meet the Press 09/23/07

Has this war led to decline in America's Power "rating" among the Countries and Nations of the world? Are we now laughable as the greatest power on earth? Where once illegal aliens ran to enter, now flee to escape. Well not really, but you don't see a lot of people begging to get to the United States like they used to. And we do have those who are now living outside of the U.S. because to them, life is simpler or less worrisome than living in a strike zone.

I remember growing up in a world where America was the greatest thing on the Planet. Where people idolized our United States and supposedly ours was the life every country wanted to emulate. We had democracy; it was a land of opportunity. We had the freedom for each and every individual anywhere on our shores to do whatever they wanted or to be anything that an individual could become. Regardless of racial issues every man and woman even in the fifties and sixties, the country was free and every foreign immigrant abroad wanted to get in on life inside "the good 'Old U S of A."

Most think America probably started losing it with the Viet Nam war. Yeah, a lot of you are out there going, "Ya think?" but what is less apparent is that even before that America had changed in order for that war to even be considered. Our mindset was that we were a "power" to be reckoned with and this tiny country (Viet Nam) seemed to need our help keeping Communism away, so we rushed in as heroic warriors and crawled away, thought of as cowards. It was a victory that didn't feel like one and in its wake, what we lost at the same time was the respect for the men that had to go through it.

Now we face that same depreciating effect of Iraq. The longer we are there the more the nation hates it and the more they blame the wrong reasons because they fail to see or realize the right ones. Terrorism or Terrorist. Those reasons became muddy along time ago.

We set out to find Saddam, that cost quoted from Noise Between Stations http://noisebetweenstations.com/personal/weblogs/?p=1416 where upon the author presents a summary of cost, military personnel death statistics and economical factor involved in paying the daily (if you look at that clock you see seconds) mounting price of the war if Iraq.

"The Bush campaign's assertion that "The world is a better place without Saddam" is absolutely true. Saddam is an evil man. But this statement looks only at the benefit of the Iraqi war and not the costs. We started a war to remove Saddam and find his weapons (the latter based on circumstantial evidence). We did remove Saddam and there were collateral benefits like scaring Syria into giving up it's arms program. Both good things."

So why didn't we stop there. Our next step should have been a declassified method of getting the population back on its feet and towards a self-supportive government. We soon found though, that Saddam wasn't the only threat and that an ideology had grown over years that would keep us fighting for years hoping to end a situation that unbeknownst to the public had started long before we ever took arms against them.

Some of the present and in power Iraqi leaders disapprove of 'The American Way' and spout views that we are the evil nation spoken of in their religious text and have our U S societies linked with dark forces and pray for our destruction, while at the same time we pray in our country that we know better, and that they are the ones secretly controlled by evil and it is they whom should be delivered, come around to a more American way of thinking and if it is by force, then that is why our military is there.

Unfortunately or fortunately, whichever your state of belief, there are a large majority of Americans who feel that exact way, who want us to get out but know that to do so prematurely would be more devastating to our socio-economic health and agenda than any life lost in the battle.

I started out just wanting to find out how much it had cost us to be in this fight. This war of sorts that's never really been declared an actual world war that had taken so much. When did we declare war on Iraq?

Amazingly I find that this is a declared war. We summarily are at war with another country and nation and have declared that we are going to fight them till one or the other surrenders. But the true declaration is not one of war on a people, but on terrorism. An entity perpetrated by people as elusive as their actions. We were bound to respond after 911 and declared that the fight would be on to "find and root out terrorism where ever it might be found." To quote The World Peace Campaign, The US had these main objectives - to oust Saddam Hussein and eliminate his weapons of destruction; to capture Osama bin Laden the leader of Al Qaeda who was thought to have escaped to Afghanistan and to minimize the threat of further terrorist attacks throughout the world.

http://www.worldpeacecampaign.co.uk/main.php?page=horrorsofwar

So as a nation we're caught between a rock and a hard place. Getting out would make us once again look like we're backing out of a fight leaving the people to fend for themselves and whatever fate awaits them under a government shakily supported by an after thought and hidden agendas.

We cannot continue to hear everyday how the atrocities continue without an end in sight and in that respect how some of the attrocities have even been perpertrated by those of own, who have become tired of the fighting and are angry beyond imagination at an enemy they are coming to resent.

The cost of war? I starting looking for figures and come away with nothing but more questions. Fears that this war will eventually lead to a more serious conflict by others who feel that we've lost it as a nation. Ideas that the few who could help are focused elsewhere and a wonder if the world will ever know a time without conflict going on at some place on the planet.

I still don't know the answer or answers if they be many, whether or not we should stay or get out, but I do understand that to remove the troops at this crucial time would be combined a national political social and economical suiside. Not because of the financial loss, but because to sever ourselves from pushing a democratic ideology and self supporting society would lead to the same thing that is happening in Viet Nam and the hidieous regiem of terrorism and subvert communist like dictatorship would creep in and Amrican would lose face again and how many times can a world see a super power as someone who cannot back up what they say or stand for?

The Chinese have already taken major control over commerce and Japan albeit troubled by product dillimas, is standing tall in the trade saddle while we slump in product quality and grade of all commodities.

One of the Japanese product owners killed himself after losing so much "face" when his products prooved defective on the market and so many malfunctioned or were tainted with lead. His pride cost so much he could not stand being thought of as an owner whose company's honor was shaken, and as his name was connected along with his personal honor. He did the only respectful honorable thing to do in his culture.

Our honor has been shaken and what can we do? There is no hari-kari for a nation or are we doing that every time the world sees us at odds with ourself over issues that should have us joined together?

Have we become a nation whose face has been lost? And if so, can we ever find it again before the entire world feels that same? It cost a lot to fight a war, but it is more than money that runs a nation. Our countries patriotic are wrapped in the what the country stands for and for a person going abroad the image a country has of us is portrayed in their behavior toward us. Recently that has not been good from reports of travelers to some foreign places.

I would hope that we can recover our image as the saviors of world. Like the image of Superman in my mind carrying the red white and blue, the flag waving proudly as always as he flies through the air. Defender of America. A country that a superhero could die for. That's the picture I'd rather stay in my mind, but then tonight I'll know I'll still turn on the news and that image again, will become blurred.

The movie Superman made you believe that a man could fly. As a symbol of hope he raised the bar for all Americans in other war times when hope was at a premium, when some countries had the balls to think they could push other countries around and we stepped in to help our neighbors. We had face then. Much face. We were the United States of America, the present power of the world, and place that welcomed anyone. We lost face with Viet Nam by not having an exit plan, or an actual plan for its people.

We find ourselves once again at a time in 2007 where we're reaching to regain face as a nation always thought to stand for peace, justice and the American way, providers of an ideal way of life. The Superman of the world, if you will. Somewhere we have lost that view.

My hope is that we can regain the recognition to be that again.