Republican Candidates: “Iraq? Afghanistan? Huh?”
Rick Perry has been catching shit lately for flipflopping on Afghanistan. “Bring the troops home NOW.” “We need at least 40,000 troops in Afghanistan.”
But it’s not just Perry. The campaign websites of Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann all have something in common: Afghanistan and Iraq aren’t mentioned. Anywhere.
What happened to “National Security!” and “You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists!” "Support Our Troops!"
Apparently that issue is passé now. Two countries — whose invasions have cost us trillions of dollars — aren’t even mentioned on the websites of three major GOP presidential candidates. That explains why Perry’s responses are so contradictory and incoherent when the subject comes up.
Maybe this subject should be brought into debates more often. Democratic strategists: can you say “Achilles Heel?”
Labels: Rick Perry Afghanistan
posted by Tom Harper @ 10:17 AM
10 Comments:
I don't think it will be too long before they start calling it "Obama's War"
Erik
Denied the opportunity to hurl "retreat and defeat" epithets at Democrats, the fun and political profit have gone out of being a right-wing warmonger. Polling on the public's complete lack of enthusiasm for the Mideast wars reinforces Republicans' unwillingness to get all rah-rah about them.
Erik, some on the right are already doing that. Same thing with the economic collapse that occurred a year and a half before Obama was elected and the bailouts that began before he was sworn in.
("So what if Obama wasn't president yet? I know what he was thinking! Yada, yada, yada . . .")
Afghanistan IS Obama's war. He chose to escalate there, and history will remember him for it, however it turns out.
However, we know who ignored Afghanistan to go to war with a country that was no threat to us. History will also record THAT.
I just got this and no way am I not forwarding it to the Lisa's of the world. Forgive my total off topic post Tom. Now the rest of you, pass this along to all of your friends, you know you want to after watching it. I'll get to the actual post when I have digested it. This was too good not to share.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN-drEG7wms&feature
Ok, now for the actual posting. They don't want to bring it up probably for the same reason I wouldn't, it has cost 3+ trillion dollars that could have been spent here. There would have to be some sort of reasoning behind spending all that money over there, so we didn't have to spend it over here. I include our current prez in that too. See what I did there ;)
I sit, sometimes, and wonder what could have been, had SCOTUS not installed commander cuckoo bananas and we had Gore instead. This whole world would be an entirely different place. It's usually after a big bong hit I get all fillisofical with it but hey, it's when I do my best thinking, what can I tell you.
Smoke 'em if ya got 'em Jess.
Have to agree with JR; indeed, Mr O'Bama seems to still think 'we' can 'win' that fiasco.
It IS his war NOW.
Americans need to know how much the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are really costing. If more of us knew, there would be so much pressure on Congress to get us out of those wars that we'd be done with them quickly.
I think more money has been put into the Afghan war by Bush than by Obama, but yes, Obama could have gotten us out of both by now.
From Wikipedia:
According to estimates near the beginning of 2011, the U.S. war in Afghanistan would cost U.S. taxpayers an $116 billion for that year - nearly twice the amounts being deeply slashed from domestic programs, including key U.S. infrastructure needs such as water, air traffic, and rail projects - while the minimum projected cost of the U.S. war for the next two years, $200 billion, exceeds the domestic budget deficit of all 50 states put together.
Also:
"The Congressional Research Service estimates that we have now spent or committed $300 billion, and that is only the money for which we can account. Some will say it is twice that, for this war, like the war in Iraq, was funded off-budget with no transparency."
"$300 billion. That is about $101 million per day for 2,950 days. Or, to put out another average, that is $3,947 per family of four that every American family has paid to date."
"To continue this war at its current level and to escalate it beyond its current scope is a trillion dollar question. Are those who would so cavalierly make this commitment willing to demand another $3,947.36 from every American family of four to pay for it?"
"Thousands have protested federal spending to rebuild America's schools, roads, bridges and critical infrastructure, but are they willing to do the same when their taxes are being spent to rebuild Kabul?"
— U.S. Congress Rep. Eric Massa, November 4, 2009
And:
"According to the Congressional Research Service, through fiscal year 2010, Congress has appropriated $1,087,000,000,000 for the Department of Defense, for the State Department, and for medical costs paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs. This amount includes $751,000,000,000 related to operations in Iraq and $336,000,000,000 related to operations in Afghanistan."
— Congressional True Cost of War Act, March 8, 2011
That's a lot of money, and it's a lot more than we can afford. If we want to cut federal spending, that's the first place I'd start.
Bush and The Republicans promised us that when Iraq got back on it's feet, their Oil money would pay us back.
I'm still waiting for that
Erik
I look at my shoes and think, is that really RAIN??
Erik: The Right is already calling it that.
SW: How quickly the Right forgets its favorite slogans. "Retreat and Defeat," "Failure is not an option," etc.
JR: You're right, history will record both of those facts.
Jess: Funny video. However, that mysterious sound you hear is Sam Cooke spinning in his grave :)
Harry: Yup, Obama owns this war now.
Snave: I keep thinking most Americans know how much these wars cost, just because so many blogs have that "cost of the war in Iraq" link displayed. But of course people who read liberal blogs are a tiny percentage of the population, so maybe most Americans really are ignorant and/or apathetic of this fact.
Unfortunately it's not easy to translate these facts into a 4-syllable soundbite, so millions of Americans will remain out of reach.
Erik: Our oil check is in the mail.
Harry: LOL.
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