One of the greatest political issues of the day is the war in Iraq. There are many arguments surrounding the war, such as whether there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, whether Hussein had anything to do with the attacks on the World Trade Center, and various other issues that the Bush administration pulled out of their collective ass. Perhaps one issue we should be looking at more closely is the cost of this war. Many people dismiss these costs as something unimportant, but the fact remains that the cost of this war is a really big problem.
As of 11:57 AM on May 8, 2007, the cost of the war reached a staggering $423,929,450,000, according to costofwar.com. Estimates for the possible total cost of the war by its end range from a rather conservative $500 billion to well over two trillion dollars. many people dismiss the issue of money without giving it much thought, but what we need to do is ask ourselves, "What else could be be doing with this money?" Once you start throwing some numbers together, it becomes obvious that we could do much better things with 424 billion dollars than kill people.
We could provide government housing for 3,817,099 families, according to CostOfWar.com, or medically insure 253,850,000 children. While Bush has been pushing for increased funding for his war in Iraq, he has also been working to cut government-sponsored medical plans. Education is an area we all know is woefully underfunded. This amount of money could employ 7,346,799 teachers for one year or provide 20,551,257 students with a four-year-scholarship to a public university. How many starving children could we feed and clothe with this money? How many African AIDS victims could receive treatment? How many of our senior citizens could live comfortably?
The sad thing is that the tremendous amount of money that is spent on the war doesn't even begin to cover the real cost of the war in Iraq. What is the real cost? To date, 3,378 United States soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq, 80 of them women, according to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. 24, 314 soldiers have been wounded, as well. That is a huge loss to our country. What about the cost of the war to the rest of the world? The war has claimed the lives of 148 soldiers from the United Kingdom, 33 Italians, 20 Poles, 18 soldiers from Ukraine, 13 Bulgarians, 11 Spaniards, as well as soldiers from Australia, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, and Thailand. A total of 223 soldiers from other countries have died in Iraq fighting Bush's war. Then we get to civilian deaths. Many jounalists and other workers who have gone to Iraq have died, and the number of Iraqi civilian deaths is perhaps one of the most sobering statistics of all. 38,198 Iraqis have died that we know of. This number includes men, women, and a startling number of children. Over 41,799 people have died as a result of this unnecessary, senseless war. The big question we have to ask ourselves is: Is it worth it? Is anything worth this?
Showing posts with label Bush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bush. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
10 Reasons Bush Must Be Impeached
from 10 Things You Never Knew
"So George W. Bush doesn't have much time left on his term, and most of the below points aren't really impeachable offenses. But at the very least, here's 10 reasons why Bush will go down as the worst president in U.S. history..."
Read More | Digg It
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1. It is actually considered a crime for the President to lie to Congress, although it's rarely enforced. I do think, however, that it is more than justified in this case to act on that and use it as a reason for impeachment. And yes, tens of thousands. Many tens of thousands.
2. To be fair, most of the blame for the Katrina disaster can be spread around. The city's evacuation was started much too late to be successful, and the city was just unprepared in general. They should have been bussing people out of the city days before they started. Also, if the levies in the city had been kept up and well-maintained, a lot of the damage could have been prevented. Bush's team was a tiny bit responsible, but that was a failing of the system as a whole, from the President on down to the New Orleans mayor and his team.
3. This is deplorable in the person who is responsible for governing us, but unfortunately, it's not grounds for impeachment. However, we need to learn from this and be sure to elect people who are competent and informed from this point onward, because although it's not an impeachable offense, it IS a definite problem.
4. Bush's team has been a huge disappointment, but again, this isn't actually a crime on his part, so he can't be impeached for it. But yes, Bush and his team continued to lie about Iraq through their teeth from day one. First of all, the idea that the Iraqis would just welcome the Americans with open arms and offer no resistance whatsoever is ludicrous. Believe it or not, not everyone in the world wants to be an American. Not all of them want to be governed in the same way we are. Not all them of them want to live our way of life. And can you blame them, with the picture of America that is presented by Bush? It was also a huge failing on their part not to heed any of the advice or warnings of true experts.
5. Further proof that Bush is an idiot, but no grounds for impeachment. This list seems to be mainly complaints about Bush rather than reasons for impeachment, although they are valid complaints.
6. It is debatable as to whether this is a valid offense for impeachment. When this went so far as to intrude upon habeus corpus, I think that it might be reasonable to consider this grounds for impeachment. What I can't believe is that even with all the criticism of the Patriot Act and all the the furthering of the NSA's abilities to spy on American citizens after that, the Bush administration CONTINUES to push for more and more power.
7. Again, while deplorable, this unfortunately isn't grounds for impeachment. It's very true, though, and very unfortunate. Of course, when you elect a president who makes money off oil, and who is a Republican to boot, what else can you expect?
8. Not grounds for impeachment, but this offense IS a huge problem for America. And Bush refuses to pull out of Iraq, making the economy worse by the day.
9. Dear God. It's so horrible he does that, but again, not an impeachable offense.
10. While this again isn't an impeachable offense, it is very unfortunate. I mean, we complain that the world doesn't like us (we make that complaint a lot about France, but I don't think many other countries are any more fond of us than France is), but then we have this President who not only paints a very bad picture of Americans, but he also continuously thumbs his nose at the rest of the world. Furthermore, many countries around the Middle East are terrified right now that they'll be next. What do you expect?
Okay, so on the list we actually have two possible reasons for impeachment. We could add that he has completely ignored various treaties that the U.S. has signed. We could also add that he WENT AGAINST THE UNITED NATIONS when they told him NOT to go to war. The reason he kept giving for going to war? That Iraq was disobeying the United Nations! Now, THAT has to make your blood boil. How about the continuous lying to Congress and the American people about several issues? Or permitting torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo?
Perhaps a better name for this list would have been 10 Reasons Bush Should Never Have Been Elected, as many of these offenses date back to before his second term, and a few back even before his first term as President. If people looked at the history of Presidential candidates a bit more closely, mistakes like this one wouldn't make their way into the White House. If Bush was a horrible governor, why would he suddenly perform better in a higher office? You promote people who do well, not the ones who totally suck at their job.
"So George W. Bush doesn't have much time left on his term, and most of the below points aren't really impeachable offenses. But at the very least, here's 10 reasons why Bush will go down as the worst president in U.S. history..."
Read More | Digg It
*******************************************************
1. It is actually considered a crime for the President to lie to Congress, although it's rarely enforced. I do think, however, that it is more than justified in this case to act on that and use it as a reason for impeachment. And yes, tens of thousands. Many tens of thousands.
2. To be fair, most of the blame for the Katrina disaster can be spread around. The city's evacuation was started much too late to be successful, and the city was just unprepared in general. They should have been bussing people out of the city days before they started. Also, if the levies in the city had been kept up and well-maintained, a lot of the damage could have been prevented. Bush's team was a tiny bit responsible, but that was a failing of the system as a whole, from the President on down to the New Orleans mayor and his team.
3. This is deplorable in the person who is responsible for governing us, but unfortunately, it's not grounds for impeachment. However, we need to learn from this and be sure to elect people who are competent and informed from this point onward, because although it's not an impeachable offense, it IS a definite problem.
4. Bush's team has been a huge disappointment, but again, this isn't actually a crime on his part, so he can't be impeached for it. But yes, Bush and his team continued to lie about Iraq through their teeth from day one. First of all, the idea that the Iraqis would just welcome the Americans with open arms and offer no resistance whatsoever is ludicrous. Believe it or not, not everyone in the world wants to be an American. Not all of them want to be governed in the same way we are. Not all them of them want to live our way of life. And can you blame them, with the picture of America that is presented by Bush? It was also a huge failing on their part not to heed any of the advice or warnings of true experts.
5. Further proof that Bush is an idiot, but no grounds for impeachment. This list seems to be mainly complaints about Bush rather than reasons for impeachment, although they are valid complaints.
6. It is debatable as to whether this is a valid offense for impeachment. When this went so far as to intrude upon habeus corpus, I think that it might be reasonable to consider this grounds for impeachment. What I can't believe is that even with all the criticism of the Patriot Act and all the the furthering of the NSA's abilities to spy on American citizens after that, the Bush administration CONTINUES to push for more and more power.
7. Again, while deplorable, this unfortunately isn't grounds for impeachment. It's very true, though, and very unfortunate. Of course, when you elect a president who makes money off oil, and who is a Republican to boot, what else can you expect?
8. Not grounds for impeachment, but this offense IS a huge problem for America. And Bush refuses to pull out of Iraq, making the economy worse by the day.
9. Dear God. It's so horrible he does that, but again, not an impeachable offense.
10. While this again isn't an impeachable offense, it is very unfortunate. I mean, we complain that the world doesn't like us (we make that complaint a lot about France, but I don't think many other countries are any more fond of us than France is), but then we have this President who not only paints a very bad picture of Americans, but he also continuously thumbs his nose at the rest of the world. Furthermore, many countries around the Middle East are terrified right now that they'll be next. What do you expect?
Okay, so on the list we actually have two possible reasons for impeachment. We could add that he has completely ignored various treaties that the U.S. has signed. We could also add that he WENT AGAINST THE UNITED NATIONS when they told him NOT to go to war. The reason he kept giving for going to war? That Iraq was disobeying the United Nations! Now, THAT has to make your blood boil. How about the continuous lying to Congress and the American people about several issues? Or permitting torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo?
Perhaps a better name for this list would have been 10 Reasons Bush Should Never Have Been Elected, as many of these offenses date back to before his second term, and a few back even before his first term as President. If people looked at the history of Presidential candidates a bit more closely, mistakes like this one wouldn't make their way into the White House. If Bush was a horrible governor, why would he suddenly perform better in a higher office? You promote people who do well, not the ones who totally suck at their job.
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