$3 Trillion

I'm generally not the one who passes things on, but as I was perusing the new issue of Vanity Fair (no, not for the Miley Cyrus pics), I found myself reading the letters to the editor, not a section of magazines I frequent. One letter in particular piqued my interest, and it's intent, of putting things into a surprising perspective about the Iraq war, worked. Well enough that I felt the need to pass it on and offer my thoughts.

"...if I were to give someone $3 trillion and tell him that he had to spend $100 million each and every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and then told him not to come back until he had spent each and every penny, said person would not return for approximately 82 years. Think about it. Eighty-two years' worth of spending $100 million each day."

I have yet to encounter one singular individual who supports this war. I have yet to encounter one singular individual who supports his tax dollars funding Halliburton or Blackwater. I have yet to encounter one singular individual who thinks we haven't spent enough money building infrastructure 12 time zones away. Politics is a land mine. But there comes a time when you have to cast your voice out amongst the cacophony and hope it somehow gets heard. It is no secret I'm an Obama supporter, but this topic transcends the election and hits at a deeper core. This is about American children being shortchanged in their education to pay for corrupt Iraqi police forces. This is about the lack of comprehensive health care for Americans while we build new Iraqi hospitals for victims of our invasion. This is about building and securing oil pipelines and refineries for big oil while domestic prices keep rising. This is tantamount to treason against the American people as a whole. Not to delve into hyperbole, but the use of funds in all aspects of this war has been criminal. Of all that $3 trillion, we still can't provide the proper armor and equipment for our troops? How can we ask our own citizens to invest the kicker checks they just received into our own economy when the goverment itself refuses to invest so? How can we blithely go along with budgets for domestic services for an overseas country that are triple our own?

This is a nation of immediacy. Everything must be delivered in a flash, from goods and services to soundbites from our leaders and entertainers. Our own government has adopted that same behavior, looking only at the immediate and ignoring the bigger picture. We only look to the present and not the future. "Someone will figure out how to pay for the education of our next generation, but, really, I'm busy right now so I can't be bothered to think about it." "We can't pull out of Iraq or it will collapse." If we keep pulling out of America, it will collapse! Our generation is already lacking in basic education and skills. Our refusing to fix it and fund it will only make it worse, and future generations simply won't be able to fix it because nothing will be left to fix and they'll be too stupid to know how. Reversing the tide of funding would only admit to a mistake and Americans don't admit mistakes, although electing a Democrat this fall would be a step in the right direction.

$3 trillion dollars is what we have spent on this war so far. Keith Olbermann ends every program with a countdown of how many days since W. procalimed "Mission Accomplished" (just over FIVE YEARS). Remember, it would take 82 years to spend $100 million a day and we've spent $3 TRILLION in those FIVE YEARS And every year kids across America have to share 20 year old text books with each other, forgo art education, provide their own equipment for extra-curricular activities and sports. If only we concentrated on re-directing those funds toward education and nothing else, just that, our next generation might have a fighting chance at righting our wrongs simply for having had a better education.

On the lighter side of this, on the page directly opposite this letter was an ad for Cartier jewelers


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