We need that Western Asian war money here at home – badly!

I am going to open my review of the top news today by using a lead-in story from today’s New York Times concerning the greatest round of worker pay cuts and work time cut backs in our country since the Great Depression.  This is a hard read if you are facing this situation yourself.  The story is here.

This brings me to the next logical question of interest to all veterans who have a desire to lead the ongoing social debate in our country concerning just where we go from here.  The question we must ask is fairly simple and straightforward.

Why are we paying for two wars in Western Asia that fewer and fewer Americans want as every day goes by when our families are disintegrating in front of our eyes due to lack of financial resources here at home? Why? 

We do not have the money to wage these wars.  Perhaps we never did.

That much is now obvious even to the most diehard war aficianado among us.  The money that we do have available to us simply must be brought home now to save hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of American families from financial ruin and a slow, horrible spiral down into lower and lower levels of the American standard of living over the next fifty years or more.  It is pretty much that simple.

We screwed up.

We are out of moolah.

If the senseless war profiteering escapades that we have foisted upon millions in Western Asia in the last eight years made any sense at all on economic, political, social or national defense levels of interest, we could still not wage these wars sensibly. 

We don’t have the money. 

We cannot put our own people to work in a way that allows for economic expansion at the family level to the point of an upward moving standard of living. Forget the liars on Wall Street.  Look at Main Street. Doom is coming down on us.

We are broke. The game is up. We are out of dough. 

We have to thank the players at the table for their time, put down our cards and leave the game room. Our line of credit with the War Casino is gone. 

We are tapped out. 

It is time to quietly leave the room, walk out into the parking lot, get into our five year old Hyundai that has the tire with the slow leak and drive back to the hotel.  The vacation is over. We have blown the kids’ nest egg.

We spent the kids’ college money on an ill-advised trip to Vegas so that we could look like the high roller and turn things around.  Well guess what?  The money is gone, the wife and kids are still back home in Wabash and our old lady is madder than hell because deep down she knew that this gamble was stupid but she did not say anything. Deep down she knew that the whole argument was flawed. 

You know the argument I mean.

 "Honey, just give me one more chance to turn things around.  I can use the kids’ college money".  She agreed to it.  So we took the college money on a poorly thought-out plan to "make the world safe for democracy" and we blew it on senseless wars in Western Asia. 

That money is now gone.  If the kids are lucky, really lucky, they can get a job at Walmart at night and on the weekends, get a college loan from the state and maybe, just maybe work their way through community college. 

Yeah, our plan just did not work out.  Pretty much this is where our national family is right now.  We blew it. And most of us veterans sat here on our hands with our mouths shut and watched it happen.  As family members, we have been very irresponsible.  That much is obvious.

We should have said something.  We essentially said nothing and sat here and watched the family go broke and use the kids’ money on a foolish escapade that put their futures in jeopardy.  You know what?  As the older uncles and aunts in the national family, we really let the family down.

Here is a story on Vice President Joe Biden’s role in helping the President decide matters on our involvement in Western Asia. If you are a Biden fan, you will like it.  If you don’t like the guy, you will cringe.  He has a lot of personal power and on the wars in Asia, he is emerging as the number one advisor to the President.

Here is a story about the coming run off election in Kabul.  There is little hope that it will meet even basic standards of fairness.  Great.  We are propping up yet another phony government with American soldiers.  Just great.

Here is a story concerning Russia refusing to go along with strong sanctions against Iran. Imagine that!  Russia standing in our way!  Who would have thought?  I think its time for a little re evaluation of what our power base is…apparently we don’t have the power we thought that we did.

Here is an odd little story about the state governments in red states refusing to put up signs at construction sites that are funded with White House recovery money.  Too much credit going to Obama for putting home state people to work?  I wonder.

Here is my final story.  It seems that in 40 states in this Union, when female prisoners are taken to hospitals to give birth, they are legally allowed to be shackled. They often are.

And this is the United States.  Its not the United States I want to be a part of…this is barbaric.  And that is why veterans’ voices must be heard loud and clear.  We need to take a more active role in how things are run in this country. 

I think you can see why.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)