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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 9/26/20

Two-Thirds of Presidential Debate Should Be About Militarism

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Source: here and here.

Over half of the money that Congress decides what to do with every year is for wars and war preparations, year after year.

When you add in police and prisons, and the militarization of police and prisons and of borders and airports and the Veterans Administration, you're talking about two-thirds of the money.

So the big question is, of course, why do I hate Veterans?

Oh, go Dick Cheney yourself. I support universal free healthcare and education and guaranteed retirement and childcare and transportation and sustainable energy for every human being, veteran or not.

So the serious question is how the hell am I going to pay for that?

Well, with a fraction of what's spent now on the militarized budget, of course.

Plus a fraction of what should be taxed from corporations and the ultra rich.

But what about the non-discretionary spending?

What about it? Much of it is for Social Security and healthcare, but a big chunk of it is for militarism including debt for past wars.

So really I think we're left with: why do I hate the troops?

I adore them. I want to offer them the choice of free college instead of enlistment don't you? Or do you not love them as much as I do?

Now, can we focus?

The U.S. government is not a government. It's not an institution that can watch a deadly disease pandemic approaching from thousands of miles away, pick up a baseball bat, swing, and hit anything other than its own rear end.

The U.S. government is a war making, weapons dealing, death machine.

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David Swanson is the author of "When the World Outlawed War," "War Is A Lie" and "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union." He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works for the online (more...)
 
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