1 Trillion $ on Afghani – U.S. War.
Read Time:1 Minute, 22 Second
*corrected / updated article*
How would you spend it?
Extended unemployment benefits?
Begin paying Louisianians to give up their good health to shovel petroleum waste from their shores?
How about to run ads asking for donations to save wild life?
What has the longest war in United States history bought for us? Protection from religious zealots who might be well funded but have proved to be wily but ignorant. (Take a gander at the latest Times Square effort.) Is that a $1 trillion effort?
[Isn’t it time to invest in a different strategy? I have been doing a lot of thinking about the nexus between the low status of women and the presence of instability, violence and terrorism. It is simply a fact that the countries in which women are least empowered are the most violent. Could it be that policy-makers and defense experts have overlooked a tool that is staring us right in the face? It’s in the eyes of women — sometimes masked by a burqa, sometimes scarred with acid, sometimes tear stained from the grief of losing a husband or child to war. It’s these women who are often fiercely determined to stop the killing and provide a secure environment for their families. Does it even make sense for half of the human race to play only a minor role in countries now plagued by war and violence?} read more at HuffPo
Tomorrow is Memorial Day. Is this how we honor the dead who served to protect and defend our country? By ignoring the suffering of the people at the cost of pointless war?
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Oh and Gwen, if I didn’t already say it, really good article. Thought provoking for many things.
I vote reduce the debt.
I’m with you Will!
Ok this may venture off into the bizarre, but it will have a point, I promise you a crazy one but a point none the less. One of my really good friends yesterday, not being mean or with any bad intentions, told me she loved me and then said to me, Jess you have to be the only person I know, has no issue buying a $400 purse but won’t pay the cost of the popcorn at the movie theatre (paraphrasing her here). Now she was not being mean, so I don’t want to hear anything bad about her because I know she would do anything for me if I ever needed it. I got to thinking about that last night and then came upon your post this morning. I actually sat and tried to justify to my friend, if I use that bag or use those shoes for more than a year or so, it has paid for itself. I don’t know if there ever is any justification for it, but I did try with my circular logic.
So onto your post using my above thing as my start, told you it would ramble. In my world, if I had access to this trillion dollars, what would I do? Would I go through using a governmental agency that would just willy nilly spend the money wherever. Nope, I would want that person, like me, who uses the justification if I buy this quality widget now, it will last for years and years and I would get my moneys worth. I would want that money in the hands of people, whether male or female, that know the value of a dollar and know how to stretch it. I want the woman who takes one chicken and can make that last a week for a family of 4 or 5 doling out the coin.
So one trillion, that is like 100 billion right? We only have 6 billion people in the world. Siphon off that 1st 6 and give every man woman and child one of those billions. Not handouts, but they get from Jess’ new peace and prosperity agency(remember this is my world people just get to be here 🙂 handled only by people like I described above. Many regs will be in place, so that you are not overspending your money. There would be no need for “captains of industry” anymore, thay would be the same as everyone else. could they still run the business sure, but they no longer have the strings attached to the worker drones to keep them tied to slave jobs for paltry incomes. You would have more people willing to live happily not destroying the land with pollution, litter and so on. Hey it worked till we got to be all industrial crack addicts didn’t it?
Now when the pilgrim people came here, according to the Tao of Pooh, I know 🙂 I have a really old copy I pull out and read and read, I recently just read it again to get myself grounded because of some bad stuff happening personally. So anyhoo, back to my deal with the pilgrims, they came here, screwed it all up thinking they knew how to work the land and do this that and the other to progress. We need to get back to letting the land work the way it is supposed to, when it harvests it will, when it needs resting it does according to the natives around the world. They were here first, they knew what worked and what didn’t. Hell there are still tribes in the Amazon and Borneo that don’t have electricity and they manage nicely living off the land.
sorry this is so long, but I got started and can’t stop the thought, or it will be gone. Memory issues.
As far as women, if women were in charge of all of this, I imagine we would be more collaborative and less war like in things we wanted to be done. Are there still hawkish women, most certainly, but we dove like women are more in number, and we would be the ones doing more to get the world back to center. If any of you have not read it, get Three cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. changing the world one child at a time is what we should be trying to do, not off killing each other to see who gets that first billion first.
This has been crazy talk from inside Jess’ mind on Sunday after she has been up thinking about what her friend said to her yesterday.
Ok, I”ll come clean, the friend was me, lol. And Jess’ logic of buying a $400 handbag vs not paying for popcorn at the theater was waterproof, if I may say so 🙂
Jess,
I’m with you, maybe cause I was raised by a single mom and my father was raised by a single mom and I’ve kinda been a single mom to my girls/cats/vk-so got no issue with handing the keys to this thing over to a group of women. But I think we would agree to exclude condi and sara. Lady G could be there.
Purse analogy works, my youngest has a purse with a logo that cost her a weeks salary and she’s happy with it but won’t ever stop for gas for her car. Dulce will be the same way when she grows up.
Well, I think most of you that know me from elsewhere, know I am one of those *gasp* trust fund babies since the ‘rental units passed. I will never know poverty that I might have, had I been left with the sperm and egg donor(bios for short) that brought me into the world. It wasn’t even about the purse, it was about how I spend my money when I got to thinking about it. The fact that I try and justify this constantly, not only to that one friend but to myself as well, kind of horrified me if you want to know the truth of it.
It’s about the people who have to survive on less than a dollar a day in some places, while I can have the best of everything you know. It’s about that mom that has to make a decision, hell do I pay my electric bill or do I go get my kid that school book they need. While I know this wasn’t my friends intention, it got me to some serious thinking about how am I living my life. This essay right here took me to being in my own head for a sec(let me tell you, not a place I like to stay long) and ask myself what can I do to make it different. All in all a good exercise, while hubby is living it up in Vegas at a bachelor party.
Jess this would have made a great article. I am hopeful that one of these days you will decide to join the magnificent team that is the next great adventure.
I leave that up to people WAY more talented than me. This was just an expanded thought, because of Gwen’s excellent, thought provoking article and my friend just mentioning to me about the purse and stuff. One of those where luck meets opportunity things right? You really don’t want my ramblings, truly you don’t. Even I don’t want to be inside my own head at times, no need subjecting you poor people to the mental that is in there, when you don’t have to be.
Jess,
I should have taken you more seriously.It’s a tough world and you’re a good person.Sometimes you just need to do something for yourself.You wanted a beautiful purse-it wasn’t the 400.00, it was the purse. Could have been 5.00 right? We all make choices.A single parent choosing between the electric bill and a school book,I guarantee there is a time they make a choice for themself as well. It may be time, letting their kid stay at the library an extra hour cause the parent needs a nap.It may be food-they eat the last piece of pie or chicken.Usually a parent puts their kids first but sometimes they give themself a little boost-it keeps a parent sane.
You did something to make yourself feel good-your life hasn’t been a bed of roses, you and your hubby and your friends are are the beneficiary of the fact that you turned out a good person.Everyone deserves something nice at times-and like I said it was the object, not the price tag. Don’t overthink this Jess-you are a human being,a very good one. If you’ll forgive my religious way of looking at stuff you don’t have to be Mary Magdalene all the time. You can be Jess and that’s a good person to be.
Virt D
Oh believe me I have had that talk with more than one person. I try to be the person the ‘rents raised me to be, every day of my life. If I can be half the person both of them were, then I am pretty much a solid human being. Oh hell, I joke about my life all the time, otherwise you just get down about all of it. I have told friends and family, I am living one of those terribly acted lifetime movies, only with really good looking characters. If you were to try and come up with a script and used my life, not one person would believe it to be true.
This just gave me some added food for thought. I love articles, movies, books or stories like that, after you have experienced them, you get to go inside yourself and really think about things.
I would disagree strongly that US military attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan have anything to do with freeing women from persecution. In Iraq, just the opposite. We have cemented in a Shia regime with close ties to fundamentalists. Women can’t leave their homes in many parts of Iraq without having their face covered. It didn’t used to be that way there.
In Afghanistan it’s the same thing. We had no interest in the women of that country, our drone attacks on civilians simply reinforce that. The Northern Alliance we supported after 2001 is as misogynistic as the Taliban they’d been engaged in civil war with.
We have many interests in these two countries, from natural resources to pipeline routes to military bases. The rights of women lie nowhere within them.
My whole urge with this was to bring up the idea of where any one reading this would spend that kind of money through government sources. To me, it’s glaringly obvious that we have much greater material / physical needs for resource at home. This becomes an unhappy expenditure to the American public, both sides of the isle, as the mounting troubles here at home astound, confound and make us afraid for our good health and future.
I keep wondering when I’ll see a greater push from the writers here and the MSM about the industry that renewable energy will create… I think, as it’s close to Memorial Day, that forget how fast US Steel and the government tasked up a war machine for WW2… like over freaking nite! Amazing what they did. The communities supported weekly with food, rubber, paper drives. Are we not at that edge in our ongoing crisis in the Gulf with how we supply ourselves with energy. Can’t we be recycling plastics to make our needs that plastic anchors in the better quality of our lives…like medical and technology? That’s my question…. can’t we spend that money better? Or are we spending justifiably right? With soldiers who are so badly led that they kill innocent journalists with a wicked taste for it, cover it up and then go about business as usual? What is the accomplishment in Afghanistan that trumps the needs of Americans about to lose Cobra, weekly food supplements, unemployment benefits?
Or too bad for them? They could have it worse?
They could live in Afghanistan.
Gwen yes! That is a perfect example of what we’re capable of, the mobilization and dedication which we gave to WW2, like you wrote overnight. Maybe people just need that sense of urgency, Better I should say our leaders push that urgency. Posts like this help.
Ta for the life preserver! Now if I could get my leg up over the side, I might make it back on board! Thanks Bro!
Beer, vodka and curry.
Well, for 12 to 18 months anyroad…;-)
Thanks for making me ‘lighten up’ 4D!
No confusion here Mike, they are one in the same. The countries are run by males who use religion to justify their atrocities of terrorism and oppression of women.Kind of like the Southern Baptist or Evangelicals on steroids. Despite the message of all regions of peace, harmony, and good will they are all the same way. Every one will be fine when everyone believes as their leaders say they should.
I think it is the contradiction I don’t get Bill. I agree with you, but the author of the piece appears to be saying two different things. It sounds suspiciously like “you want your cake and be able to eat it too.” Well, anyway words to that effect. I never quite got that either 🙂
Hello
Sincere and Heart felt sentiments for sure. While technically flawed it was well received by me. For years now I’ve thought of Women as the key to expanding the human condition. What will be the impetus be for women to unite, take the reigns of a failed world. Perhaps the greed that will destroy a third of our Planet.
(the gulf oil disaster)..Whatever it is I’ll be waiting.
I didn’t mean to be critical. The Indian wars lasted around 80 years. Surely the most expensive is current.
You are right Tim. The Indian wars..A seemingly endless campaign to completely eradicate the natives of this continent. One of the many stains on the record of man.
Agree with you Tim Waters about the “technically flawed part”
I am confused here. On the one hand the author is talking about seeing the world of religious and moral persecution through a woman’s eyes and then condemns the very action that is trying to free them from such persecution. I am not criticizing. I am just trying to understand what is being said. I think I get the video although it is misleading having labeled the war as being Afghanistan when it is talking about both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Finally “the longest” war? I am pretty sure that isn’t accurate unless perhaps you parse the language of Vietnam and not accept that this was a “war” from the beginning and not just a “police action.” I am always suspicious of claims that are made without peer reviewed references to support the positions of the writer. The news media is not considered a “peer reviewed” reference.
No… You are right Mike, Vietnam was labeled a ‘war’ from 65-75 when it concluded … officially. Three years longer than the Bush Afghanistan invasion, 2003. I have been listening to the MSM describe as such too long. (You know, the resource for all the aggregated articles?) I had no idea, actually, that we began sending soldiers as ‘military advisors’ as far back as ’51 in Vietnam. Mike, are you using peer review reference to tell me I did not do my due diligence on this piece?
I borrowed a snippet from Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s Huffington Post article that his video represents from the front page. I did properly link it? I should have probably put the ‘read more’ at the top in context… That is where I meant folks to go to read ‘the goods’ on the complete piece … via “aggregated” news.
Instead I tried to place my thoughts in sentences at the beginning of an aggregated piece:
which are about spending all of this money on a ‘not so much’ successful campaign in Afghanistan vs the needs here in the United States at this moment.
I do think Ms. Schakowsky’s article topping the Huff Po is really good one. The link on Huff Po takes you to it. Those are the ideals I posted.
Thank you for linking the rest of the topics within the article!
When did I become ‘author’ and quit being Gwen?
“I am always suspicious of claims that are made without peer reviewed references to support the positions of the writer. The news media is not considered a “peer reviewed” reference.”
{Peer review is a generic term that is used to describe a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals with the related field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance, and provide credibility.} Wikipedia
-This article needs additional citations for verification-. OK.
Gwen it goes without saying that I know what a peer reviewed article is, and I was talking not about what you did but about what the video showed. If you will notice the video made a lot of claims, and referred to ABC news. At no time did I mention that I was asking you to provide references. I recognized that you were paraphrasing a source article, which is fine and encouraged. It seems that tempers are running high these days. I think we need to step back a notch and take a deep breath while we can. After all you never know when the air will be polluted. Who would have thought they would be killing our beautiful oceans.
I hope this clears up any misconceptions and the author I was talking about was the original author, not Gwen 🙂
Looks like it’s been a long day a MMA. Hope all are tucked in nicely with a good book or movie now.
Ta Mike, sleep nice.
🙂
Ta to all! Who’s my buddies? Who’s my pals? LOL
If the reason we were in afghanistan and/or iraq were actually to help a downtrodden and at-risk group (i.e., the women), I might be able to live with that.
But that’s not why we’re there. We started there based on a half-baked vendetta from a half-baked rube who called himself “W, the President”. Now we’re there because…of terrorism? But that can’t be fought by conventional warfare, so us being there at all seems rather pointless. It sure isn’t anything to do with freeing up the women, that much I’m pretty certain of.
Now the terrorist networks are recruiting out of Africa – do we send troops there? After what? These groups are nebulous, and nomadic – but I think that truck bomb attempt in NYC and the underwear bomber last christmas shows they really don’t have much in way of capability for a serious strike anymore. So what, do we chase them down for the next 50 years, until they’ve gone through a couple of generations and we finally hit on one lazy enough to say “screw it, we’re not playing the terrorist part that dad & grandpa did anymore?” Don’t mind me, just thinking out loud.
My understanding is that the piece here at MMA was written by Gwen, and links to a HuffPo opinion piece by a congresswoman. I’m confused as to what kind of peer review process we are expected to produce for a HuffPo opinion piece.
It was the Huffington Post opinion piece I was talking about. I was NOT talking about Gwen and at no point did I say I was talking about Gwen. I would never chastise an MMA writer publicly.
Okey doke…I figured I was misunderstanding 🙂