Iraq;Who Pays the Price?

The American people were shaken to the core by 9/11. Most of us had been taught, as I was, that America never had and never could be attacked on our own soil by outside forces in modern times.
When we were, people became afraid and paranoid, and very anxious for a scapegoat, someone to blame and punish. Osama bin Laden proved tricky and hard to catch, so when Bush and his cronies found a plausible way to blame Saddam Hussein and Iraq, the majority of Americans were more than willing to believe what they were being told, and ignore the fact that there was zero evidence that Iraq had anything at all to do with 9/11. Some Americans still don't seem to realize that today!

When the facts are presented to people who don't want to believe them, the people simply choose not to believe. This is a terribly dangerous situation. People are still saying, and believing that "American troops are fighting for our freedom and safety. " Let me say here that I love, admire and respect our troops. I believe that most of them truly believe that they are fighting for our freedom and safety, and serving their country. The intent of their hearts is noble, and I respect tat and honor them for it. But just because their intentions are good, does not make it true. People say and believe that troop are fighting for our freedom and safety because this is how they make the situation tolerable for themselves, because to believe that our troops are fighting and killing and dying and being maimed for oil or for other interests of our President and his cronies would be intolerable and would require something to be done. So, they choose to believe the one big lie, and that makes it possible for the government to continue to sell us other lies and use those lies to take away those very freedoms that the troops are allegedly protecting. When Bush decreed that the press would not be allowed to photograph body bags being loaded and unloaded from planes or to list body counts, why was there no protest about freedom of the press? Because it was for "National security." When our personal freedom was set aside and the government was given unprecedented access to our phone calls, Internet use, and every other aspect of our life, we agreed, because it was all to keep us safe from terrorism.

Because we have accepted the lies and willingly agreed not to be confronted with unpleasant truths in the newspapers and on the news, we continue to pay enormous costs in money, freedom, morality and human life. When our economy is falling apart and Americans can not afford healthcare or decent housing, we continue to wage a war that costs us $259 million dollars a day.The money the U.S. spends on average in just one day in Iraq, $259 million, could have provided 22,615 college-aged students with a full year's tuition or enrolled 35,500 three and four-year-olds a full year in Head Start pre-school programs.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

We continue to fight in a war in which "only" 3,724 deaths had taken place by May, 2007, but in which there have been over 60,000 "non-mortal casualties and from which have stemmed 180,000 disablity claims, where body armor saves lives but results in increased rates of amputations and brain injuries from IEDs. The VA is overwhelmed with claims, and consequently, there are not enough funds to provide mental health care for the 37 percent of VA patients seeking it. As many as 300,000 veterans have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, two-thirds of whom are not being treated.

In addition to the tens of thousands of injuries American service members have sustained in fighting in Iraq, more than five hundred have undergone "major amputations"-the loss of arms or legs. In the four years of fighting in Iraq, that totals ten servicemen and women losing a limb every month (or one every three days). Of course, we are not even considering the loss of life and limb to Iraqi citizens including women and children. Estimates of the number of Iraqi dead range up to half a million.

For less than the amount spent in one month in Iraq, New Orleans' neighborhoods could be completely rebuilt and improved to meet standards that would better protect them against another hurricane.

As many as 3.8 million Iraqis have already fled their homes, and an additional 10,500 civilians become refugees on average every week.

The money spent in one week in Iraq could have provided three meals a day for nearly an entire year for six million children, the same number that dies from hunger and malnutrition every year.

More than 34,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in Iraq in 2006 alone. That is equivalent to ninety-three civilians killed every day.

The money spent in Iraq in one year could have paid the health insurance premiums for half of all uninsured Americans, including all uninsured American children.

What could we have purchased with $400 billion, had our national priorities matched our moral potential?

We could have funded full American compliance in the Kyoto Protocol, aimed at saving our world from global warming and other environmental crises, which is estimated to cost $75 billion less than what we've already spent in Iraq.

We could have purchased life-giving treatment, including costly antiretroviral drugs, for every person in the world infected with HIV/AIDS. For almost six full years.

In economic terms, USA Today reports that the total war cost in Iraq and Afghanistan could total $2.4 trillion through the next decade, or nearly $8,000 per man, woman and child in the country, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate.

The loss in mental health, personal freedom, freedom of the press, and moral matters is unmeasurable. The loss in both military and civilian life is unacceptable. Even the loss of irreplacable art, architecture, and natural beauty in Iraq and Afghanistan is a cause for lamentation.

As Americans, it is our duty to hold ourselves and our government accountable for any decision to spend American lives and money on a futile war. These are moral choices, and they have moral consequences.