Our Costly Priorities

Earlier this month, on October 7, the eighth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, as President Obama ruled out a significant reduction of troops in Afghanistan, and the White House was denying a BBC report that the U.S. could be sending up to 45,000 more, the Senate passed an additional $626,000,000,000 (billion) for military and war funding by a vote of 93-to-7.

And even though the head of U.S. Central Command Gen. David Petraeus said in May that al-Qaeda is effecitively out of Afghanistan, Obama said, "We will target al-Qaeda wherever they take root, we will not yield in our pursuit..."

The president's ever-obedient lap dog, the U.S. Senate, naturally rolled over and said (through the house-broken Sen. Harry Reid), "One thing I think was interesting is that everyone, Democrats and Republicans, said, 'Whatever decision you make, we'll support it."

Now all this is well and good and I am delighted to see that Obama has memorized his script, but one cannot help but notice that these wars in Afganistan and... oh, where was that other place? - are costing us a lot of money.

And as we watch more and more home foreclosures, layoffs, furlough days, public school closures and cut backs across this great-but-kind-of-struggling-and-sort-of-crumbling nation of ours, one has to wonder just what are our national priorities?

We need someone who can examine the taxing questions of which it is that Americans value more - a solid education system, top notch affordable health care, better, cleaner, more environmentally-friendly energy production (and consumption), a well-maintained infrastucture, and an informed, civic-minded, refined culture and society OR war, war and more war.

It's not an easy choice, of course, and so fortunately there's The National Priorities Project.

If you have never heard of this group, well, you should. And rather than read my explanation of who they are and what they do, you could just cut to the chase and click on the above link. Or, if you are too busy scrambling to keep your head above water to sift through the site, you could just sit down and watch/listen/read yesterday's appearance of National Priorities Project's executive director Jo Comerford on Democracy Now! The segment is only about 13 minutes long (that's only 10% the time it takes to watch an empty balloon float across Colorado) and in the segment, Ms. Comerford offers some pretty interesting food for thought, some of which I have further consolidated for those of you who need to get back to watching the Larry King analysis of the arrest of balloon boy's family.

But before you sink back into RealityTV, please consider this (courtesy of the National Priorities Project research):

Fact: 2010 Pentagon budget: $704,000,000,000 (billion)

Fact: Combined total budget of 48 U.S. states projected to be in deficit for 2010 is $689,000,000,000 (billion)

Fact: Nearly 20% of the 2010 U.S. federal budget is for the Pentagon.

Fact: Less than 3 cents of every federal tax dollar goes to energy, environment and science. Over 37 cents goes to the military.

Fact: Number of active military bases the U.S. maintained in foreign countries in 2008: 761

Fact: Number of foreign (non-U.S.) active military bases maintained in the United States: 0

Fact: New York City residents have spent $30,600,000,000 (billion) in taxpayer dollars to fund wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

Fact: As of 9-30-09 the U.S. has spent $915,000,000,000 (billion) on war in Iraq and Afghanistan (and counting)

Fact: Baseline U.S. military budget projected to increase 2.5% each year for next 10 years (a growth of at least $133,000,000,000 [billion]) *does not include funding wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If all that sounds just a little unbalanced, well maybe it should. How is it that our country makes up for 45% of the total global military expenditures, outspending the next 14 largest spending countries combined? And how is it that the so-called "Rogue Nations" -- Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria, comprise just 1% of the world military budget?

Well, aside from the fact that the U.S. military is paying $400 a gallon for gasoline in Afghanistan (kind of a rip-off, dont'cha think?), and the Marines alone suck down 800,000 gallons a day, the U.S. War Machine also has to pay for the upkeep of over 700 U.S. military bases in foreign countries every day. That means shipping a lot of Mountain Dew, Marlboros and Burger King to weird places like Okinawa, Kuwait and Diego Garcia.


Oh, and don't forget about the Predator Drone War being waged by joystick from the suburbs of north Vegas -- that costs a few bucks too.

No wonder we are planning to increase our military spending by at least $133,100,000,000 (billion) in the next decade.

Besides, nobody said it was cheap fighting evil and defending freedom, so come on America- buck up! Quit whining about health care, school, libraries, roads, jobs, houses, cities, old people, kids, and the working class - shut up and prioritize.

America is a war to fight, yes, we are a war. Today, tomorrow and until we have nothing left.

These, my dear, are our priorities.


P.S. And if you wish to learn how others are paying for our war making, read this article in the Times of London.