Some infuriating statistics

I want to pass on some statistics about the war in Iraq that completely pissed me off.

As of today, we've spent over $495 billion in Iraq. The war is costing Americans more than $338 million a day. Americans are having trouble paying their mortgages, food and gas are much more expensive (in Colorado the average cost of a gallon of gas is $3.00, last year this time it was $2.24 - AAA statistics courtesy of 9News), health insurance is out of reach for far too many Americans, but we're paying $338 million each day for Bush's pet war to benefit the military-industrial complex and his oil-buddy cronies? Nearly half a trillion dollars, and counting...

Economic forecasts are going to continue to be grim as long as we continue to dump billions into a reckless war that has no end in sight. The ongoing occupation in Iraq is sucking up the resources we need to make our economy work again. There is no exit strategy from the quagmire in Iraq. Maybe that means we shouldn't have gone in there in the first place if we had no idea how we were going to get out.

The U. S. has to borrow almost all of the money it spends on the Iraq war, which means our national debt is skyrocketing. Our grandchildren will be stuck with paying the tab on Bush's imperialistic war, and for what? To line the pockets of arms-makers and oil company executives? Because Halliburton and Blackwater desperately needed another hundred billion in their corporate coffers? We're mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's tomorrows to pay for the damage done by Bush's ego today.

And all the while we're being exhorted through government propaganda to be patriotic and support our troops, thereby tacitly supporting the war. Let's get this straight right now: the best way to support our troops is to BRING THEM HOME! Are we supposed to keep on sending soldiers to die for the glory of oil company profits? And by the way, it's not the sons and daughters of corporate executives and politicians who are dying in Iraq; it's the children of the middle and lower-classes - our kids. The rich are getting richer off the blood sacrifice of our children. This must end. Now.

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?” - Gandhi

Peace,
AuntieM