On Veterans Day, there are 89,457 reasons to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
Since the 9/11 attacks and the beginning of the "war on terror," the US has invaded and occupied Afghanistan and Iraq, is sending soulless and cowardly Predator drones to drops bombs on western Pakistan, and the prospect of another war in Iran.
There are so many reasons to oppose these wars it's hard to even begin to count them. A short list would include the trillions of dollars spent, the inevitable blowback, and the millions who have been killed, maimed, and displaced as a result.
But as Veterans Day approaches, Kelley B. Vlahos writing in the Antiwar.com blog may just have the most relevant reason of all: 89,457, the number of US casualties since the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001.
As of Nov. 9, that’s how many American casualties there were in Iraq and Afghanistan since Oct. 7, 2001, when the Afghan war officially began. That includes a tire-screeching 75,134 dead, wounded-in-action, and medically evacuated due to illness, disease, or injury in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and 14,323 and counting in Afghanistan, or Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF).
That's 90,000 Americans who are permanently damaged, who are nearly unrecognizable to girlfriends and wives, family and friends. Not only do they have to live every day with the horrors of what they were ordered to do, but they have to deal with the rationed government health care crumbs that the state throws their way (if they get treatment at all).
http://www.examiner.com/x-8131-Sunset-District-Libertarian-E...
I am proud of our veterans
So many have sacrificed so much.
Please if you see someone wearing a uniform, hat, emblem, patch, sticker, let them know you appreciate them too.
I spoke with a SeaBee just the other day and thanked him for all that he and his brothers in arms (and sisters too don't forget all the people that have fought for liberty and freedom aren't just men) have done for us all.
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.
-Professor Bernardo de la Paz, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Robert A. Heinlein
History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Here's to the children who will never come home.
I have always made a point to thank Vets, I will only thank Oathkeepers from now on. If they have any honor, to the Constitution, to their brothers-in-arms, to what is good, right, moral, decent - they have to lay down their weapons.
Truth exists, and it deserves to be cherished.
I don't know, it sounds great in theory, but I was in the
military,and you are trained not to question orders. That is a very difficult thing to overcome. The vast majority of Vets sign up because they believe in America, Freedom and serving something great then themselves and for that, they should be thanked.
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
-Alexis de Tocqueville
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
-Alexis de Tocqueville