Nine years ago today was a day we will always remember. Let’s not delve into the silly and say “things will never be the same again”. On the contrary here we are living demonstratively the same lives we did before…except for the men and women in uniform.
When Obama announced the Afghanistan surge over a year ago his then (and now more infamous) General McChrystal addressed the troops as we watched by satellite. He told these soldiers they are there to protect and liberate the good Afghani people.
Wait a tic…somehow I don’t think that was in the recruitment brochure in Pawnee Rock, Kansas. “Go to the arid Middle East to risk your life for people you’ve never met.” Met? Hell most Americans couldn’t point out Afghanistan on a globe. Their maps are of the cartoonish variety and point out burger joints...and Nascar venues.
Here is what I reflect on, on a day such as this…America has Military Bases in nearly a third of the world’s countries and give or take a platoon, 500,000 troops. That is astonishing to me.
This is certainly not a rant about the Military Industrial Complex. It is just an observation of a perplexing priority.
The US is drowning in debt. When Bush took office the accrued budget deficit was $4 Trillion. It was $8T when he left less than 2 years ago and now it is $12T. They are now digging the hole faster than Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan can go through a bag of Bolivian marching powder.
They need either a huge budget cut or a massive tax increase pronto. However if you DOUBLED the personal tax rate currently in the US, there would still be a shortfall. Surely absurdity has been reached.
Experts have gleaned that the only expenditure large enough to cut and make a difference is those innumerable foreign bases. Now don’t think for a second vacating these would leave the US vulnerable. They still have 1,000,000 uniforms at home, more sophisticated machinery that every other nation COMBINED… and of course THE bomb.
What they would lose however is their ability to exert pressure in those other countries where many multinational corporations are the benefactor.
Ah there is the rub.
The US is not a country defending borders or ideals anymore. It hasn’t been since the end of WWII. It is a country defending markets. Markets that are the life blood of its economy and its cushy position at the top of the heap so their flag waving populous can continue getting morbidly obese and stunningly distracted.
So as we all watch the News reports of the Memorial services and the drums are beating for those poor families and the brave men and women…remember that rousing number is cutting two ways.
