Congress passed a bill today to fund the war in Iraq. I am all for paying our soldiers...(in fact I would like to thank all of the men and women who fight to keep our country free....THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart) but it is time to BRING THEM HOME and pay them HERE. How many American lives can be lost (even one life lost is TOO MUCH...IMO). How much money can we spend to establish a government in a country that ATTACKED US and hated us?...(and probably still does)
According to The Brookings Institution, in 2003, "Over the past several months, news organizations and experts have regularly cited Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Information Administration (EIA) figures claiming that the territory of Iraq contains over 112 billion barrels (bbl) of proven reserves—oil that has been definitively discovered and is expected to be economically producible. In addition, since Iraq is the least explored of the oil-rich countries, there have been numerous claims of huge undiscovered reserves there as well—oil thought to exist, and expected to become economically recoverable—to the tune of hundreds of billions of barrels." (to review the entire article...http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/fellows/luft20030512.htm
It sounds to me like this is not a country that we need to spend 125 BILLION to secure their government. We asked other nations to forgive loans made to their old government. Obviously, this country holds a huge wealth in natural resources. At the very least the money we spend there, establishing a sound government, should be considered a LOAN to be repaid in full. The United States has a HUGE DEFICIT.....and someday we are going to have to pay. Why sell OUR children's future to help one of the most resource-rich nations on earth?
We still have people in areas ravaged by hurricane Katrina without homes. The area of New Orleans is a WASTELAND. People die from lack of healthcare, lack of medication and poor nutrition in this country EVERYDAY. Many people live in POVERTY. Our infrastructure is CRUMBLING. The cost of repairing out nation's cities will be astronomical. Why are we spending BILLIONS to rebuild a country that attacked us? Sure I believe in compassion for the defeated but we have so many issues at home that literally beg for attention. I am not sure that such a huge sum is justified.
The Democrats managed to work a raise in minimum wage into the bill...I guess to help the poor pay for the huge price of gasoline and increased taxes to fund the war reconstruction. Don't get me wrong I am all in favor of a boost in the minimum wage...it is long overdue. I figure the government is assuming that our nation's children will be working for minimum wage now that they have bankrupted our economy and are planning ahead.
--The Clever Cynic, http://theclevercynic.blogspot.com/
E-mail: the_clever_cynic@yahoo.
