60 or 400 or 12,000?
On the way to my underground bunker this morning, I heard a report on NPR that in Iraq, 60 US soldiers were killed and 400 wounded this month alone. And today is only the 18th.
This goes well with that really awesome Army ad, where the dough-faced father sits his buzzcut son down and says, "today when you got off the train you did two things you've never done before, at least not at the same time..." You know, it's selling the idea that the Army can take some young punk and turn him into a MAN. Well, for 60 sets of parents this month, maybe having Junior shake your hand and look you in the eye isn't such a big fucking deal after all, is it?
No one is belittling the cost of war, least of all people like me who have been dead set against it from Day One. The thing that makes me nauseous is these pernicious, shitty little TV ads that keep selling the idea of a glorious military career to impressionable kids.
Don't join.
Let the rich send their sons and daughters.
Let them reinstate the draft.
Watch what happens when the powerful as well as the weak have to watch their children return home in bodybags.
I guarantee you this war would be over in a fortnight, the minute people like Bushie would actually have to fight and risk their lives, not just report (or not) for duty at an Air National Guard unit.
This war, like all wars, is being fought for the interests of the privileged elite (private contractors, oil companies, Halliburton subsidiaries, war profiteers on Wall Street, et al) yet the ones who pay the costs are the poor.
Mom and Dad can't afford college, and Junior has aspirations, so maybe enlisting in the military will get him/her that college education... It's just way too sad.
Think of the 2 and 1/2 billion dollars a month we spend on the Iraq war. What would our country be like if we had decided to spend that money here, fixing this place? We'll never know. The Dow Jones IA went above 12,000 today, proving again that war is good business.
Don't for a second believe that those in power give a shit about anything other than money.
60 killed. 400 wounded. 12,000 on the stock market.
