Rep. Alan Grayson introducing his War Is Making You Poor Act on the House floor
As we look back to honor the fallen on Memorial Day, the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan grind on. Afghanistan, in its ninth year, is already the longest war in US History and Iraq, at seven years, is not far behind.
On May 21, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) introduced his War Is Making You Poor Act. Co-sponsored by Reps. Ron Paul (R-TX), Walter Jones (R-NC), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) Barbara Lee (D-CA), John Conyers (D-MI), and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), an attempt to draw attention to the unsustainable (and self-defeating) nature of the US military industrial complex that spends more on “defense” than the rest of the world combined.
Meanwhile, it was a shitty week for the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal:
1. Fatalities by US troops reached the 1000 mark, marking May as the deadliest month for US troops this year, with 33 KIA.
2. A US military investigative report found that a US drone attack had mistakenly identified a group of Afghan civilians as militants, killing 23 of them.
3. The combined cost of the Afghan Iraq wars passed 1 trillion dollars in direct costs, and approximately $3 trillion altogether.
4. Taliban forces have re-infiltrated Marjhah which has been held out as a singular example of McCrystal’s successful counterinsurgency strategy.
5. The commander of the Canadian forces, with the second largest contingent of troops after the US, resigned in a sex scandal.
6. Another NATO fuel convoy was attacked and destroyed.
7. An Afghan police convoy was attacked, killing five.
8. McChrystal claims Iran is aiding the Taliban.
And we ain’t seen nuttin yet. With the melting of the winter snows comes more frequent and deadly Taliban attacks. And this summer we’ll witness the long planned US attack on Afghanistan’s second largest city, Kandahar, the main object of President Obama‘s shell game escalation involving the movement of combat troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, tripling the amount there from the day that Bush left office.
To be continued…
