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Even reducing troops by 33,000 is totally weak, completely unacceptable. There were 35,000 troops in Afghanistan when Obama donned the mantle of president.
Of course, the media is saying that Obama stood up to his generals and cut more than they wanted. Bull!!
Obama, telling the nation he kept his promise
What we are witnessing is one more example of failure of leadership, failure to stand up to the people Obama is supposed to be commanding. Instead, he is, as people now expect him to do, "listening to the Generals." That's not what Obama was elected to do. He was elected to make hard decisions.
We must face the reality that military leaders are like crack addicts, totally unable to cut down on troops, let alone embrace the idea that our mlitary must be cut to one quarter or less of its current size.
Oh, there are peace activists out there talking about a twenty-five percent solution. I say that is weak. That is playing first down punting like Obama does in most of his endeavors.
The US military is a cancer on America, having grown from a protective, defensive organ to become a massive blight upon our economy and a dark shadow upon our character and integrity. If we cut the US mlitary budget by three quarters it would still be massive by all standards, but we'd have enough to give health care to all Americans and probably enough to give all eligible candidates free college educations.
Or we could catch up on repairing and updating our crumbling infrastructure.
We spend a tiny pittance of a budget on statecraft and development. Development means smart diplomacy and power-- helping other nations, building good will with them through programs that invest in people, in their and our future. We could quadruple the statecraft and development budget and still it would be one tenth of a military budget cut by three quarters.
We have to look to the military leaders as major contributors to the economic problems and the suffering we are experiencing in the US. They really are like drug addicts, addicted to more and more troops and weapons and bases and technologies and intelligence. It is their nature, their training. That makes them dangerous to the US economy. They are unable to tell this weak president, who is unable or unwilling to make the hard decisions, that it's time to leave Afghanistan to is corrupt leader.
Ron Paul may be wrong on social issues and government, but he is so right on the military. It's time we got out of Iraq and Afghanistan and Korea and Germany and time we shut down hundreds of the bases we now have. They are not churches for corporatist imperialist evangelization. They are not forts set out in the wilderness to protect US corporations-- they're transnational now and no longer pay US taxes anyway.
I'll say it again. The estimates on the military budget in the US ranges from the $708 billion budget congress approved, which did not include guaranteed requests for extra funding for Iraq and Afghanistan and black ops, up past a trillion dollars. I'm guessing it's closer to $1.25 trillion and I say cut it back by seventy five percent. Close 85 percent of the bases. Bring home 90% of the troops and 95% of the non-military private consultants from Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And while there's major restructuring being done, make sure that all the officers trained in West Point, the Naval and Air Force Academies and anywhere else military leaders are created, make sure they are taught how profoundly damaging addiction to troops and bases is.
Obama failed yesterday. The American people-- a majority, finally-- want an end to these wars. it is time for him to lead the nation with courage, not cow to the will and words of the generals.
