Well, we’re finally getting out of Afghanistan. That’s great news! But I have one question. Why did we go into Afghanistan in the first place? That was 20 YEARS AGO! You might think it was to catch Osama bin Laden. Well, folks, the Taliban offered to turn him over to us. But we bombed and attacked them anyway.
Here’s another question: Did you vote on starting a war in Afghanistan? I know I didn’t. We didn’t even vote through our congressman. Only Congress can declare war on a country and Congress never declared war on Afghanistan.
Here’s the real kicker: Do you know how much this war cost us? You and I, the taxpayers. Try $2.26 trillion and counting. Yes, according to Brown University’s Cost of War Project, that’s what the bill for that mess comes to. And that EXCLUDES future interest payments and future costs for veterans care.
$2,261,000,000,000.
Did you ask for this? I don’t remember the American public ever saying: “Great idea! Go and blow more than $2 trillion over there. Let our schools fall apart, our bridges and roads crumble, let the communities go bankrupt, but PLEASE spend ten or twenty years blowing up villages and killing innocent people with our money. Sounds like a swell plan!”
This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. This is just ONE WAR. This is just a drop in the ocean of money wasted on endless wars and expansion of our bloated military.
Anyone remember something called the peace dividend? Yes, back in 1992 when the USSR fell apart, they said we were going to stop all the fighting. All that defense money would be now spent on making our lives better, our schools better, our communities better. This was the beginning of a new era.
Well, we haven’t stopped fighting since.
Isn’t it time to end this madness? How about some peace for a change?
Where’s our peace dividend?