Afghan Escalation Would Make One-Yr. Pentagon Budget Almost As Big as Entire 10-Year Health Bill

[G_j]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Afghan-Escalation-Would-Ma-by-David-Sirota-091116-625.html

Afghan Escalation Would Make One-Year Pentagon Budget Almost As Big as Entire 10-Year Health Bill
November 16, 2009
By David Sirota

In pitting the 10-year cost of Democrats' health care bill against the 10-year projected cost of the bloated Pentagon budget, my newspaper column last week made a simple comparison rarely ever made in politics today - a comparison that might provide citizens with much needed context, but a comparison that is ignored.

Is the comparison's omission deliberate? It's hard to say, but when you read this typical New York Times piece, it's hard to argue that it isn't being irresponsibly ignored:

While President Obama's decision about sending more troops to Afghanistan is primarily a military one, it also has substantial budget implications that are adding pressure to limit the commitment, senior administration officials say...

Even if fewer troops are sent, or their mission is modified, the rough formula used by the White House, of about $1 million per soldier a year, appears almost constant.

So even if Mr. Obama opts for a lower troop commitment, Afghanistan's new costs could wash out the projected $26 billion expected to be saved in 2010 from withdrawing troops from Iraq. And the overall military budget could rise to as much as $734 billion, or 10 percent more than the peak of $667 billion under the Bush administration.

Kudos, of course, to the Times for even reporting on the unfathomably large costs of intensifying militarism and adventurism. But as you'll see in the story, there's no attempt to put the costs into any context - specifically, there's no mention that an escalation in Afghanistan would mean outlays for the one-year Pentagon budget is approaching the total outlays of the entire 10-year health care bill.

..more.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. But only healthcare has to be "deficit neutral".

Because somebody somewhere said so.

[MadHound]

2. One more reason we need to get out of Afghanistan and Iraq ASAP,

These wars are draining our treasury, and we are compromising our economy, possibly fatally, in order to fight them. The Soviet Union made the same mistake, and the economic instability that was brought about by the massive military spending that they did led directly to the break up of the Soviet Union.

We can't win either of these wars, the sooner we admit this, the sooner we can get out of them. Otherwise we will break our country on the wheel of a fruitless set of wars.

[G_j]

3. draining the treasury

and filling the coffers of the military industrial complex.


sounds like a plan!

[glitch]

4. Very much so - a few last lootings before the final sack and exit. nt

[hayu_lol]

5. KGO San Francisco, last night, claimed that the cost of...

another 35,000 troops into Afghanistan would average out to $1,000,000 per troop.

[glitch]

8. I've heard that before. And you know damn well it won't be the troop getting much of it.

I also heard for every troop there will be an additional "contractor".

I wonder how much the price is per mercenary?

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. Mission Accomplished!

x( And Obama is going to 'finish the job' :woohoo:

[Karenina]

6. Guns or butter.

[AzDar]

7. K & R

:kick:

[tekisui]

9. knr!~

[LWolf]

10. To some of us, the solution is clear.

Bring them home.

:(

[G_j]

11. yes

:hi:

[truedelphi]

12. And never ever forget the law of unintended consequences.

For Vietnam, that unintended consequence was the rise to power of one Pol Pot, and the resulting demise of some two to three million Cambodians. Had we not de-stabilized the Far East with our long lasting Vietnamese war, Pol Pot would not have had the chance to do so much harm.

And not only did our long lasting war allow him to gain power, but when he came to ascendancy, most in the USA were sick of war and only to happy to not be thinking about genocide in a far away place.

[scarletwoman]

14. k&r

[debbierlus]

15. This needs to end. NOW.

[chill_wind]

16. K & R.

Thank you, David Sirota.

CONTEXT: http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

[unhappycamper]

17. I've been trying to put the $$$ in perspective.

The Veterans forum has the details.