Veteran's Day

So, it's another Federal holiday; a day set aside to remember and honor our miltary and all the veterans who have lost their lives as well as those who risked all to defend our nation. I am proud to have served for more than six years in the U.S. Army, on active duty in Germany and later in the Army Reserve.

I strongly support our government's efforts through the Veteran's Administration to provide healthcare and access to jobs and  education for the men and women who stood tall in defense of America.  These good people deserve our respect and must never be forgotten.

I have to say that I believe the wars we waged in Iraq and also in Afghanistan did a terrible disservice to those in uniform. We know now that the Bush/Cheney Iraq war should never have happened.  The case for that war was fabricated by politicians, who used false claims of 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' that never existed to justify American military action.  Even now, the cost of this folly has not been fully calculated.  Thousands of Americans and perhaps a million or more Iraqis died in that war that should never have been.  More than a trillion American tax dollars were squandered  on a war that, in the end, served no one other than oil oligarchs and defense contractors fattening their bank accounts callously at the expense of the American people and the soldiers who were sent into harm's way.

Likewise, the war in Afghanistan has gone very badly and never should have happened, at least not in the way it did.  Going after Bin Laden and his terrorist band was certainly right and worthwhile.  Evolving the mission into one of nation building was a mistake from the get-go.  

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and their cabal of sociopathic neocons bear total responsibility for these two wars and their lasting consequences.  History is already judging them very harshly for the extreme harm they did to America and its people, as well as the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. 

I am thankful that President Barak Obama has ended the war in Iraq and our military presence there, and is on track to removing the last of our troops from Afghaistan in 2014.  Extracting our military from war is a lot harder than getting ourselves into that kind of conflict.

At this point in history,  we need a complete review and reordering of American military doctrine.  Right now, the Federal budget is still weighted down by annual military expenditures that exceed $700 billion.  That's more than the defense budgets of all the rest of the world's developed nations combined. There is absolutely no justification for that.  The only area where more money should be spent is in Veteran's care and services. We don't need more Navy ships. We don't need more expensive missiles and war fighting aircraft.  Enough already. We have more of that kind of broad front war fighting hardware than we will ever use.  It makes no sense to break the economy to buy military capability we are highly unlikely ever to need.  A strong economy is the best defense against the kind of conflict we deal with these days.

The best thing we can do for American Veterans is to committ ourselves to keeping them out of harm's way unless our country is truly threatened. A step in the right direction would be to recognize a jingoistic fool running for congress when we see one and avoid voting for him.