WASHINGTON - May 15 - The Washington Post reports today, "The House passed a bill yesterday that would provide more than $96 billion in funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through Sept. 30, as President Obama had requested, but a bloc of 51 Democrats opposed it.

"Democratic opponents are accusing Obama of the same charge they leveled against his predecessor: escalating a war without a clear exit strategy."


Executive director of the National Priorities Project, Comerford said today: "Each dollar spent on war in Afghanistan and Iraq is a dollar not spent on human needs here at home. For instance, taxpayers in Maryland will pay $2 billion for yesterday's House supplemental vote. For the same amount of money, they could have provided four years of health care for 75,000 people, or sent 50,000 students to four-year colleges -- for free.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/05/15-12


Ohh, and watch this spinning.

http://costofwar.com/

And this is worthy of a post here why???

There are political forums at numerous places

ummmm and this is one of them

<----getting sick of war

No, he's got a problem me posting it on mingle, i guess.


I'm gonna keep posting it, until I die.



Taxpayers in the United States will pay $907.3 billion for total Iraq & Afghanistan war spending (approved & pending) since 2001. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:

267,406,630 People with Health Care for One Year OR
939,289,301 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year OR
19,596,112 Public Safety Officers for One year OR
15,559,271 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year OR
140,275,201 Scholarships for University Students for One Year OR
169,588,785 Students receiving Pell Grants of $5350 OR
7,057,801 Affordable Housing Units OR
399,894,220 Children with Health Care for One Year OR
124,509,400 Head Start Places for Children for One Year OR
14,904,312 Elementary School Teachers for One Year OR
13,108,904 Port Container Inspectors for One year

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/tradeoffs?location_type=1&state=888&program=577&submit_tradeoffs=from_costofwar&tradeoff_item_item=999

I hated the war from the start...Should never have started the Iraq war..But pulling out too early would be a huge mistake, as Obama and every other politician Knows..

At least they are consistant.

Whats 96 billion when the budget is in the trillions?

Very well said..96 billion is chump change compared to what the budget waste are

LOL, you're right...

Here is a comparison of these astronomical numbers.


A million seconds is 12 days.
A billion seconds is 31 years.
A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.


A million hours ago was in 1885.

A billion hours ago man had not yet walked on earth.

A million dollars ago was five (5) seconds ago at the U.S. Treasury.

A billion dollars ago was late yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Treasury.

One trillion seconds ago – 31,688 years – Neanderthals stalked the plains of Europe.

Actually ..Am loving this post the more I think about it..I hate the thought of the turmoil in the Middle east when The troops come home..I am scared of Iran..

But....Keep posting about it...There are plenty of people that are losing loved ones daily..And somehow this has to stop

I was in favor of taking Saddam and his regime out, but then we should have gotten out. Actually it should have been the UN to have done it, but the UN is a worthless organization that is too caught up in politics to do much of anything, even in face of unquestionable genocide, they can't even muster enough support to send a dirty letter. I find it ironic that there was any question over whether Saddam had WMD's. We gave him his power and "of course we knew he had WMD's, we have the receipts."
The fate of Iraq is in the hands of the Iraqis. The threat to Iraq is not from an outside force, it is from civil war. So what is our business there now?

When watching the presidential campaigns last year, I only saw one presidential candidate who truly offered to send back all of the troops home immediately.

He said the war was a crime and he was even willing to put Bush, Cheney and all of their cronies to court to charge them for war crimes.

Although he received little air time when campaigning he did make a point for many Americans.

It is too bad he only got a few percentage points on votes.

Yes it is Congressman Kucinivich

Today we are spending another 96 billion dollars on the war.

I have a feeling that will only be a small chunk of money going over there. There will be much much more of your tax money going to Iraqi's in the near future. The question is will it be indefinetly?

For me 96 billion dollars isn't chump change. It is money that could make all the difference for many Americans here in this country.

3.

Add Ron Paul (R) and Mike Gravel (D).

The taliban is in Pakistan anyway.

Yes very correct. They where also against the war. I just thought that Kucinivich put in more passion and determination in getting the Bush Administration responsible for their actions.

I didn't see that as much from Gravel or Ron Paul although their speeches are fantastic and real.

It is amazing that they only got so little support? I will never understand that. I suppose it has something to do with campaign money and the ability to get more air time.

It was funny in one of the campaigns the announcer who gave questions for each presidential candidate asked a profound question.

and I quote:

"If you had one big wish right now what would it be?"

As each presidential candidate gave their answers, Kucinivich of course the last one gave his answer.

"I wish I wouldn't have to stand here for 50 minutes not being asked a question so I can tell America what I would do to fix this country"

The people laughed at his remark.

I only shook my head for I knew that if he got more attention he may have gotten more votes.

So that is how it works unfortunately.

I also mentioned always with the people around me that the two best finalists would have been Ron Paul and Kucinivich or Gravel.

and not Mccain and Obama.

It would have been a really great debate between the two in my opinion.

Oh well the past is the past and it can't be changed now.

Now we are stuck with Obama and his campaign slogan "Hope"

May there truly be hope in the future for American politicians. Most of all I hope they make wise decisions that will ensure safety of the people who live in this country.

What the govt paid for war and or "peace keeping" could have be spent on your own country and its "now" poor.

no one "knows" anything about that because we haven't tried it.
i see it as that countries problem now i hate unjust wars that have nothing to do with defending this nation or our freedoms, if it was cause in which we were defending our self i sure as hell would've signed up.


its just people like you that like seeing people like me (when i say that i mean young guys) who make a choice based on the theory that it will get us more respect even if its not what we believe in.

people around my age are dying for stupid asses in politics and self interests of greedy old jackasses and people that want to be politically correct or just repeat what they hear on the news everyday.

fact of the matter is , we are fighting a war of conquest the govt is really ****ed up and no one cares as long as their favorite celebrity is elected, and that is how elections have been going since i have been alive.

the Taliban is now pretty much broken , we destroyed them in the first few months of fighting.
the problem now i believe are the Iraqis that see us as invaders of their homeland and are fighting back , in other words they are doing what people here would probably do if we were invaded by a foreign nation.

we dont even have solid proof osama had pulled off 911 , he is wanted as a suspect sure but who can say that some one in the govt isnt helping a: hide b:helped him pull it off
after all back in the 80's our govt funded Osama bin laden and gave him guns and ammo from what i have learned.

They should of been looking for Bin Laden instead of going to Iraq, IMO.

lol you are a scared little man then huh?
you let the unfounded fear run your life?
Iran most likely posses no threat to us as long as our govt. dosent try to start a war with them over propaganda and lies coming from every direction in our media to make us back such a war, with people like you around my friend the war will never end.

the more i read from you the angrier i get because you show how dumbed down you are and the lake of respect for people that have or may potentially risk they're life in a war that you backed because you were "scared!"

People like you are the reason why the world is the way it is.