Most of us Mom's can barely manage to get the kids to school and feed them dinner every day. Most of us work. Most of us are responsible for doing the laundry, paying the bills, getting the dog to the vet and taking Grandma to the doctor. Most of us have barely five minutes a day to call our own. But I'm here to tell you why you had better decide to spend that five minutes every day working hard to ending our two wars.

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In 2001, after the attack on the twin towers, the US went to war in Afghanistan. Since the folks that had attacked us were funded by Saudi Arabians, and the people of Afghanistan are some of the poorest and most insular on earth, that didn't make much sense. But we've spent almost 10 years moving the rubble around to the tune of a few hundred billion a year anyway.

Attacking Iraq in 2003 made even less sense since they had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attack, had one of the most westernized/secular regimes in the region, and were fully contained by a very effective no-fly zone. We've been at war there for more than seven years . . . and all we've done is set up a puppet government that will fall unless US military forces and vast sums of military aide are continuously poured into Iraq to maintain it.

Here in the US . . . most of us have managed to do a pretty good job of ignoring both wars. And one can make the case that's kind of adaptive. If people of the US allowed ourselves to get violently angry every time our government did something completely stupid, our society would rip itself to bits. So we all work hard to ignore the crap it does.

But now it is time for us to start a war of our own and I think Mothers are going to have to be on the front lines.

Yes, I Mean You . . .

Most of us Mom's can barely manage to get the kids to school and feed them dinner every day. Most of us work. Most of us are responsible for doing the laundry, paying the bills, getting the dog to the vet and taking Grandma to the doctor.

Most of us have barely five minutes a day to call our own.

But I'm here to make the case that if you love your kids you had better decide to spend that five minutes every day working hard to end these two stupid wars.

Our lack of effective political action has cost us a great deal in the last decade and it is on the verge of costing is a great deal more in the months to come. Ignoring these wars and all the related government spending is like ignoring a lump in your breast or your husband's chest pains.

You'll live to regret your mistake very much.

I Know You Don't Have Much Time . . . So Here's the Low Down

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the US about one trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000) in cold hard cash. Since the war was paid for by deficit spending, which is effectively like paying for it with high interest credit cards), and since those direct costs don't take into account the impact on VA and veterans benefits going forward, or the cost to states, National Guardsmen and their equipment, the price is actually two or three times higher.

Much of the money we have spent has gone to companies like Kellogg Brown Root, who poisons the water our soldiers drink and electrocutes them in their showers, and Blackwater, who (unconstrained by the Universal Code of Military Justice), commits atrocities that get our military men killed. These companies, and all the other military contractors our money has been "donated" to, have very active "political lobbies" that we've funded insanely well over the last decade.

Believe me, hundreds of millions of the dollars you and have have "invested" on fighting this war are being used to keep it going in perpetuity by the folks who make a profit from it.

Spending all this money on war has meant not spending it on education, jobs, or anything else you or your family benefit from.

In fact, this spending has siphoned money from every program that provides any direct benefit to you, including law enforcement, government regulation that's supposed to protect your food, water or financial investments. It has even gutted disaster relief programs, as we saw in New Orleans.

The Problem has Become Critical So You Have to Take Effective Action Now

The United States is currently in an economic crisis which has occasioned more than two trillion dollars of deficit spending in the last year alone. The government tells us that the unemployment rate is over 10%, and that doesn't take into account the 5%-7% that have been unemployed so long that they no longer have benefits.

States, ranging from Arizona and Michigan to California are collapsing due to lack of tax revenues and an explosion in the number of people who need food, housing and health care.

Safety nets that protect children, the elderly and the infirm are evaporating. Cuts to education from kindergarten through University are making it harder for folks who live in this country to get the skills they need to build the infrastructure and economy that we'll need to support the 10 Billion or so people who will be living on this planet in 2050.

Fifty percent of all bankruptcies are related to medical bills, and the multitrillion dollar bailout we are about to give the health insurance industry does nothing to stop that. Across the US, people are losing their homes while Federal bailout programs that prop up banks and ensure investors who purchased Mortgage Backed Securities won't lose a dime.

We are being told we can't afford to have programs that help people start new new businesses, find jobs, have health care or educate their children . . . But we can continue to fund these two stupid wars.

If you are a mother with kids, and you'd like to see them have a future, its time to commit yourself to taking some meaningful action. If you don't want your kids to be living hand to mouth for the rest of their lives, beggared by the cost of caring for you as you age, and without the education they need to get a good job or start a new business, and under a regime that thinks endless war is sustainable . . . get up off your butt and end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Here's what to do:

Every day call or fax your congressmen and women. You can look the contact information up on http://www.congress.org. Your job is to suck up about two minutes of their time every single day letting them know you'd like to see these idiotic wars ended. It has to become their priority. If you miss a day, that's OK, just get with the program the day after.

If you are really angry, gather up about a hundred people from your church or neighborhood and schedule time to lobby your congressmen at their offices when they come home on one of their frequent breaks. If they see you representing a hundred voters, you'll get a meeting. If you prefer, find them at fundraising events the next time they come looking for cash to get elected. If you can, take this year's vacation in Washington DC and go to their offices to tell them how much you hate these stupid wars. Try to meet with them or an aide personally. If you know someone who needs a vacation and you have a few bucks to spend, send them to Washington on your behalf.

Tell other people you are sick of these stupid wars that cost hundreds of billions a year. Explain why and what you are doing to end them.

That's all it takes. By the time we have 10% of the country contacting their congress members every single day to tell them to end these stupid wars, we'll have our government back. The key thing is to make sure you take up their time. Letters and email don't work because they are processed by computer.

Don't limit your political action to voting. Their butts are in your chair, no matter what party either of you is in. Make them work for you right now to end these wars.

You Can Afford 5 Minutes a Day

Effective political action isn't that much work and this is one of the most important things you will ever commit yourself to doing.

Because although the shelling and the drones may be in Iraq and Afghanistan, the truth is the war here at home has your family in its sights. These people are completely happy to spend every dime your family has on these stupid wars. They are happy to enslave you here at home so they can siphon your wealth into their pockets. They can't do it if you make them stop.

About Nancy Fulton

Nancy Fulton is a mom and mother of three. She's also a writer and film producer. You can get free tickets, or a free DVD, to her next film at http://www.nobetterfriendmovie.com/ She looks forward to seeing you on the front lines of the war against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

References

Here are some links that support the stats she used in her article

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Authors Website: www.nobetterfriendmovie.com

Authors Bio:
Nancy Fulton is a writer and filmmaker. You can find her work at www.backfromiraqmovie.com and www.nobetterfriendmovie.com. She's the daughter of a military family with a firm commitment to protecting civil and human rights worldwide.