Rep Eric Massa: War in Afghanistan Must End

[katty]

more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/05/rep-eric-massa-video-war_n_347097.html

2,950.

That's the number that echoes throughout Rep. Eric Massa's (D-N.Y.) five minute speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, as he fervently calls for an end to the war in Afghanistan. Massa builds his speech by listing off numbers that underscore the massive amounts of money that have been spilled into the war: 2,950 is the number of days we have spent in Afghanistan, $300 billion is how much we have now spent, which comes out to $3,947.36 spent by every family of four.

"Tragically, that's just the good news," Massa says. The financial losses are small when compared with the "irrevocable loss comprised of 911 American combatants killed and 4,198 seriously wounded -- and we do not have the ability to estimate the long-term wounds that we cannot see or quantify -- that will be carried by the soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines of this conflict for the rest of their lives."

This undoubtedly strikes a personal chord for Massa, as he served in the U.S. Military for 24 years and holds a degree from the United States Naval War College.