Tuesday, January 17, 2023

A 2011 Flyer About the Afghanistan War…


This flyer was given to me on my way to work years Ago. And with more troops (at the time) returning to Iraq to "advise" the warring factions there, the ideas expressed below are as relevant now as they ever were.

Afghanistan War: What Benefit?

The Pentagon spends $5.3 billion a month on Afghanistan. U.S. taxpayers will pay $533 billion for proposed Defense Dept. budget for fiscal year 2012.

As Congress battles over cutting spending, the government continues to borrow nearly $10 billion a month to pay for the war, adding to the debt. "Where is the sense in borrowing money to build a bridge or school in Afghanistan that later gets blown up - while telling our cities and towns that we have no money to help them with their needs?" ask Massachusetts Rep. McGovern & Matthew Hoh, former Marine Corps Captain & State Dept. official in Afghanistan and Iraq. Development efforts in Afghanistan are worthy, but at what cost to U.S. lives & economic or national security?

The same amount of money could provide for 1 year: 283.5 million U.S. kids with low-income healthcare, or 8.5 million elementary school teachers, or 70.1 million scholarships for university students, or 8.4 million police or sheriff's patrol officers.

The U.S. Invaded Afghanistan to ensure that the Taliban would no longer provide a safe place for Al-Qaeda. Today, Al-Qaeda has been almost entirely uprooted from Afghanistan, and the operation to kill Osama Bin Laden proved that neither 100,000 nor 70,000 troops are necessary to weaken the organization. After 2012, roughly 70,000 U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan (with gradual withdrawal) & will continue to fight for a mission they have already completed.
Ask Yourself, Friends & Leaders

Why do we have war?

What does it say about our national priorities when 59% of our budget is devoted to systems of violence, aggression & military might (Defense Dept., War, Veterans Affairs & Nuclear Weapons Programs)?

Why does only 1.5% of our Federal budget, much of which is military, go to foreign aid?

Why do we proudly send our children to kill other children?

Why are weapons our No. 1 export product?

Why do we have more than 700 military bases in more than 140 countries?

How is it that war has become the U.S.'s automatic and only response to any perceived or real threats?

Has the U.S. allowed its wealth & technological achievement to combine with its idealism to create a society in which major warfare is a permanent part of its national life?

Act Now
Call 202-224-3121, ask for your representative & urge them to cut war spending & to invest in preventing deadly conflicts.

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