What if in Afghanistan..
From the New York Times, one troop, posted for one year, costs the tax payer 1 MILLION. There are 68,000 troops there now, brass is looking for an additional 40,000, doing the math, that's 108 BILLION dollars. There are an estimated fewer than 100 Al Qaeda, (those responsible for 9.11) fighters in Afghanistan, with others being in Samolia, Pakasatn, Yeman and dozens of other countries. And it was the mission to find those responsible for the attacks, bring them to justice and go home.
We are propping up another war lord type dictator, posing as someone who embraces democracy, in an entirely corrupt government. The natives hate us and think we should go home, farmers hate us, because we are destroying some poppy fields and over 5 thousand Americans have died so far.
What if... paid all the poppy farmers and pot growers the same price per pound they get now... which is short money. We bring home the raw product, provide enough medicine for every opiate addict in the country, put drug dealers out of business, almost immediately, which would reduce gang violence, murder rate and incarceration rates. The farmers would love us, Al Qaeda would have to get their drugs from another country, the working people could take control of the corruption and we could go about completing our mission... if it is indeed, to get Binladen and go home. Their President Brazeer, said today, his country would be corruption free and able to stand on their own in 4 years. How many more Americans will be lost in our attempt at country rebuilding? Just one more is way to many.
Call me crazy, but it would be cheaper to pay the farmers, rather than to occupy their country.
How many more Americans will be lost in our attempt at country rebuilding? Just one more is way to many.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 8:19 PM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
Nice idea Jim, but it will never fly. THis country is built around a war mentality. It impacts our economy as well as our stand with other countries. We never seem to be willing to try an alternative. Your numbers make a good case for doing that, but who is going to listen?
I agree John, no one has asked me or anyone I know for ideas for ending any of our current wars, but who would have thought the war on drugs would ever wined down?
The 40K increase in boots on the ground is just the tip of the iceberg. The so called experts believe that we need 400,000 troops to make that country democratic and safe. And while the military is reaping the results of recruitment in our bad economy, the numbers of young men and women needed for various conflicts around the globe, may necessitate a draft.
As many more families grieve over lost ones over a place that has been at or close to civil war for hundreds of years, reasonable Americans, not politicians, will look for alternatives.
I just see Vietnam and all who were lost all over again and it scares me. I owe my grandchildren a better way of life, and not more wars.
How about we focus on getting our country back on track and then help the other guy? I think we need to spend money tracking down the terrorists, but I don’t think that has to mean going to war. They did not go to war with us to attack us, they did a targeted attack on our economy and culture. Are we really saying they are better than we are at doing that? What exactly do we have the CIA, NSA, and FBI for then?
Nice idea Pillsbury. Makes sense to me, and I am sure to most who come here. Now, how do we get anybody with any authority to actually do it is my questions. We can have all the good ideas we want but we need to figure out how to make them happen. Hopefully, come elections next year, we can start to implement that.
The more I hear about this war, the more it sounds like Nam. They say history repeats itself, and that we are destined to continue to make the same mistakes if we don't learn from the ones we already made. I fear that is where we are headed here. The amount of money we are spending is unimaginable. Yes, our country was attacked and thousands of our people died. But by sending thousands more to die on foreign soil for the last 8 yrs, what have we accomplished? Has it been worth what it has cost us? If you ask me, the answer to both of those questions is an unequivical no.
Keep up the good work here Pillsbury. Always has been informative to come here, but you are actually getting pretty good at the writing part too. Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow bloggers here, and to you and yours Pillsbury. Off for the holiday myself. See you all in about 10 days.
The cost of war is not one that we should measure in dollars, but in lives. In this case, using either as the measure, the cost is far too high for the product we are buying.
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