Okay, so I’m usually pretty prepared to have an argument about politics, but I have been continually caught off-guard about Iraq/Afghan war spending. Finally, I am rectifying this problem, and we’re gonna take a look at the Congressional Research Service’s report on the subject, entitled “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11″. This report was released on September 28th, 2009, by the way.

Here’s the link.

Alright, let’s check the tape.

With enactment of the FY2009 Supplemental (H.R. 2346/P.L. 111-32) on June 24, 2009, Congress has approved a total of about $944 billion for military operations, base security, reconstruction, foreign aid, embassy costs, and veterans’ health care for the three operations initiated since the 9/11 attacks: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Afghanistan and other counter terror operations; Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), providing enhanced security at military bases; and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).

So, $944 billion dollars since 2001. There you have it. No more distortions or issues with numbers. Just under a trillion (gosh, that sounds so Obama-aged, doesn’t it?).

Here’s another thing. Some projections of future spending, which I think assumes no surging. This includes a gradual drawdown scenario, so that’s the thing we have to swallow to read this.

• $161 billion in FY2009;
• $147 billion in FY2010;
• $128 billion in FY2011;
• $101 billion in FY2012;
• $79 billion in FY2013; and
• about $77 billion a year for FY2014 through FY2018.100

So now, let me sling some arrows! For comparison’s sake, here’s some spending figures:

War on Terror Since 2009: $944B
2009 Stimulus Bill: $787B over seven-ish years
Senate Healthcare Bill (based on six years of spending leveraged against ten years of taxes): $849B over 10 years
Cap and Trade Bill Cost: $1761 per family (per White House)

So whenever a liberal wants to roil away about the war spending being the driving factor of federal spending, smack them the hell down and show them the above report. You could also make a strong case that national security is covered explicitly under the US Constitution, whereas welfare programs, health care legislation, and energy taxes are not, but constitutional arguments are not effective on liberals, as they don’t believe in it.

WaPo has the story right here.

Alright, here’s a quote:

SEOUL — President Obama will not announce his decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan before the Thanksgiving holiday, senior aides said Thursday.

The answer is: Nothing again. Nothing? Not even a promise to say something after Thanksgiving, or before Christmas? Really? Just more delays, huh?

The news came as the president greeted 1,500 troops at Osan Air Base in South Korea, just before boarding Air Force One and heading back to Washington after an eight-day trip to Asia.

Our boy-king has some stones, don’t he? Go meet with troops, even mentioning that they’re a great photo op, and delay a decision that literally means everything to the military. Meanwhile, our missionless troops die in Afghanistan whilst the President does what exactly?

Obama said in interviews Wednesday that he would reveal his decision within the next several weeks. On Thursday, aides clarified that there would be no announcement before Thanksgiving, one week away. Senior administration officials said Obama intends to meet with his national security team again before going public with his plans.

So, I’ve used the word several many times in my life, and meant different things when I said it. Its meant 3 weeks and even up to 10 or more weeks sometimes. This is about as open-ended as Obama can make this. Can’t even commit to a deadline on his decision that has lingered for 4 or 5 months now.

Obama did not mention the looming decision in his remarks to U.S. troops, referring to the Afghan conflict only by thanking South Korea for its efforts and expressing gratitude to the American military personnel who have served there.

It must not have come up. Honest mistake. Now, I’m gonna give Barry a little bit of slack based on this:

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has stated that without the deployment of up to 40,000 additional troops within the next year, the mission “will likely result in failure.” But some aides are arguing for a much smaller troop increase, and the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, Karl W. Eikenberry, has questioned whether the Afghan government can be a reliable partner.

I get it, Obama. Its a hard decision, but we’re literally spending lives and money, which you’re apparently concerned about these days (psst, you already tripled the deficit, dummy), without a serious mission in a country full of people trying to murder us. DO SOMETHING. You wanted to be President, now fucking do it.

Let’s talk about our Dollar, okay? Okay, I will.

Our dollar is failing. India just bought 200 million tons of gold, China is moving into gold, the G20 was openly discussing moving away from the dollar as the international currency. The value is plummeting, and gold is soaring.

Why is the dollar failing? Well, friend, we have some debts against our own money. Problem is, we’re not paying it off. As a matter of fact, our President has already spent a ton of money on non-military matters. Its scaring our debtors, and they are balking at backing a President that, in his own words, is “just getting started.” Not only are we not paying anything off, but we’re spending ever faster against our credit.

Obama has no intention of slowing his spending ways, as the push for health care reform has proven. If Medicare is used as any barometer, as liberals love to do. Medicare has a $36T unfunded liability. Yeah, any program that runs a deficit like that cannot honestly be used as a success in any respect. The bill’s first 10 years will run a 900 billion dollar deficit, but even that is gaming the system. You see, that number is gained from 10 years of taxes matched against 6 years of spending, so only the first ten years are even at that number. Let’s also remember that the 500 billion cut from Medicare will NEVER happen. When the time for these cuts comes, they will be cut. Alright, back on track…

There has been a lot of talk about the financial crisis being over, or the recession being over, or a jobless recovery. This talk is all premature. A great wave is going to devastate this nation, thanks to our President, and his continual drive to submerge the nation’s head beneath the waters of financial solvency. Our collapsing dollar will lead to inflation like we haven’t seen since, um, I don’t know, Jimmy Carter.

Imagine when our unemployment is around 8-11% and then 10% inflation hits. Imagine when the whole country takes that hit atop our current situation. I wonder how hollow Obama’s speeches will sound when he waxes poetic about his policies. Will he see the Hoovervilles he built in the distance?

I’m going to keep this moderately short and to the point.

The Fort Hood shooter was not a madman. He was not crazy in a medical sense. He may have simply “snapped” that day, but it was his proclivities that led to his actions.

The man was a radical Islamist. He was a pseudoterrorist that simply crossed over the lines after numerous internet postings and attempted contacts with Al Qaeda. He is simply part of the modern-day plague of this world: radical Islam.

I’ll say it again. Radical Islam is a monumental problem in this world, and it represents the most destructive single force in it. These wicked men, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups, convinced of divine missions, conspire to spread fear and destruction. They are triply terrible when you consider their evasion of consequence by committing suicide and their senseless disregard for their own lives.

From this and recent history, two things:
One, its time to simply accept that this world has an enormous sickness in radical Islam that needs to be named, culled, and eradicated. If this man were a radical Jew, he’d be publicly derided, as he should be. There are no special protections afforded by being Muslim. The double standard is horrible to behold, but everywhere. Did you know its a fucking crime to have a Bible in Saudi Arabia? If you are a Muslim, you get beheaded for it! I hardly think calling out that Muslims are about 95% of the world’s terrorists is hateful. It is what it is. Spineless evasion of mentioning the reason Hasan did this helps nothing.

Two, its time to call out regular Muslims. Where in the hell are the strongly worded letters and shouts from the Islamic community decrying these terrible attacks? Why don’t the peaceful Muslims inform on their evil brethren? Why aren’t the clerics screaming for justice for the soldiers? At some point, the silent Islamic community becomes an accomplice in addition to a silent witness. There are good Samaritan laws on the books that force people to aid the greater community against crime when they have a chance, and its about time society examines why the Muslim religion largely lets this happen.

That is the lesson for today, children. When you are a big corporation rampant with fraud/waste/bad judgment, your first move should never be to lean on Mommy Government for a free bailout. There are myriad principled reasons for this, many of which regard robbing your own customers, the taxpayers, of their money so you can continue bad practices.

I thought it was the wrong way to go for each of these corporations and for the government, as well. However, I think the punishment for the very executives that caused this mess will be 60% right on target, but 40% completely wrong. Let’s break each half down:

60% on target:

Executives control the direction of a corporation. They push products, investments, practices, and policies to their workers and retail outlets, in whatever fashion they are manifested. These men, bankers and auto guys alike, used poor judgment in handling corporate affairs, and their businesses tanked. They then asked the taxpayers, or more accurately the Congress, for a governmental bailout, funneled by friends in high places to their coffers. They let the government in, and now they deserve the paycuts, and all the crap that comes their way from allowing power-hungry politicians a piece of their own pie. Their moral deficiencies are their own estates’ downfall.

40% way off:

The government caused huge parts of these problems that led to the failure of banks and the auto industry. GM and Chrysler STILL pay far more to their employees than Toyota and Honda, which leads to higher quality at a lower price for the Japanese automakers. Banks were forced by the Community Reinvestment Act to lend to poor risks to maintain profit margins they are obligated to pursue for their shareholders. Unions and housing aid firms like, you guessed it, ACORN, each played their governmentally-backed role in forcing unworkable conditions for these giants of Corporate America.

I’d normally have these ratios at 50/50, but Ford did it the right way. Even under the burden of their problems, this organization stood up to the temptation of “free money” from the Feds, and they are pressing ahead. Similarly, smaller banks, and some of the larger ones have returned (or attempted to return) their money from the TARP program. The banking system was an actual liquidity crisis, so I would rank immediate return of money almost as high as Ford’s flat refusal.

The government is an evil, sinister mistress when it comes to gaining power, isn’t she? When banks wanted out of the TARP controls, she wasn’t quite ready for some of that return. Nay, the hooks were in Citi and the others, and they don’t come out so easily. Even small banks were subject to mysterious “liquidity tests”, and many were refused at the door, even when providing enormous proof of their solvency. As a friend to my father’s bankers, I have heard these tales.

So let us partially enjoy watching the result of giving in to base tendencies and letting the government “save you” for the greater good. Always for the greater good.

A bit OT: What happens if GM fails again? Does it get another bailout? The new car sales bubble directly caused by Cash for Clunkers is hurting the business, as well as creating a new used parts scarcity that we haven’t even seen yet, as all the old cars can’t be salvaged. Does Ford get their fair bailout if their problems swallow them up, or does the government only protect GM/Chrysler? Who decides what companies should be owned by the government if it comes to saving a sector? Who is the almighty arbiter of whether GE, Phillips, Kohler, Sun Microsystems, or Nabisco get a pass on bad business?

Finally, what is the impact on the average citizen who is now being shown that the government no longer respects or is willing to accept that freedom and capitalism is the freedom to succeed AND to fail? Just the other day, a friend was telling me about his science fair experience back in high school (some 20 years hence). He got first place and a blue ribbon in one of them, which he really thought was great, until he realized that the top 1/3 got his ribbon, the next third got a red 2nd place ribbon, and the bottom 1/3 received a third place ribbon. Even the worst showing got a prize. Its no wonder my generation is so effed up politically when no one has been scolded in class, spanked by their parents, out first in dodgeball (not even allowed anymore), picked last in kickball, cut from a sports team, or given no accolades for poor work. Kids aren’t even held back in school anymore for failing to progress! Their social development is too fragile, the teachers (and whoever) argue.

Isn’t that a funny term? “Social” development. Sounds a lot like “social” justice to me, in that its a bastardization of a real term to mean something that you only use when hiding children or even adults from the realities of the world we live in. Our President uses terms like that all the time, which gives me quite the view into his psyche.

Just thought I’d mention that while the Pentagon, the SecDef, and the citizenry are demanding some action on the situation in Afghanistan, our President chose… well, he went with the snooze button.

At the very least, pull soldiers out while you him and haw (sp?) around, Mr. President. You are the decider, remember? Do you remember when you said that? Soldiers are dying while you teeter on the fence! Its tragic to lose them when there is a goal in mind, but senseless and criminal to let them die without a clear mission! I don’t give a shit what Bush did, and we can’t change it anyhow. Pull the fucking trigger one way or another.

I will tell you what I have told you before. Environmentalism, like health care, is not, nor ever has been, about improving the lives of Americans or anyone in the world. These causes are the modern movers of Communism in our time.

No, not socialism. Communism. Creating a faux equality between all citizens, with government officials watching them all from the highest tower. A shapeless mass of serfs, watched and controlled by their betters, the shepherds in the sky.

The mask is falling away quickly, but only because they are so close. Think about this: If you are in power when you sign a treaty to create new powers over the citizens of a nation or a global government, who decides who controls that new force? Why, its you, isn’t it? What Honduras’ Zelaya tried so crudely to do, our masters now lawfully pursue right before our eyes!

Here is a video from a climatologist that the World forgot:

This nation is in dire need of some citizen activism that isn’t instantly demonized by the media and those democrats who prefer to look away until the September of an election year. First, they came for your tax dollars. Next, they came for your health care. Next, they came for your carbon emissions.

Freedom is in great peril. Let us fight for it!

According to a Rasmussen poll just released recently, Huckabee is winning amongst GOP candidates at this moment.

/collecting

This is a fucking outrage. This man is a terrible representative of the GOP, as one can easily see by his horrible governing tactics and taxation record. Is the party reduced to voting for someone who fucking LOST to John McCain as our next hope?

McCain got floored by Obama, and Huckabee is a worse candidate all around. I swear to effing God, I’d rather have another four years of Obama than Mike Huckabee’s formerly fat ass in the Oval Office. There is no amount of damage Obama can do to this nation greater than the outright death of the Republican Party at the hands of a RINO bastard like Huckabee. Stop this man at all costs! Sound the alarm!

The man IS Bill Clinton. Quite literally. Slick and smooth, he simply masquerades as a GOPer this time. Good God, the Earth will open up and swallow us all if Huckabee gets traction this time around.

The time for action is now. Find your conservative buds and cut the head off this monsterous nightmare scenario before its too late. These coming elections are about lower taxes, tough foreign policy, fiscal responsibility, and individualism. They are NOT about pardoning murderers, raising every tax possible, and being on fucking FOXNEWS.

Get out there and stop that man!

The military wants some stuff. What do they want?

First, some background: Back in October 2007, ABC News reported that the Pentagon had asked Congress for $88 million in the emergency Iraq/Afghanistan war funding request to develop a gargantuan bunker-busting bomb called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). It’s a 30,000-pound bomb designed to hit targets buried 200 feet below ground.

Why do they want it? Well, they have “an Urgent Operational Need.” That’s why. According to my knowledge of English, I believes that means that the weapon’s presence is required for operations in the near future.

Why now? The notification says simply, “The Department has an Urgent Operational Need (UON) for the capability to strike hard and deeply buried targets in high threat environments. The MOP is the weapon of choice to meet the requirements of the UON.” It further states that the request is endorsed by Pacific Command (which has responsibility over North Korea) and Central Command (which has responsibility over Iran).

So, CentCom is involved, eh? There’s a bit o’ evidence. Did Congress give it to them?

The request was quietly approved. On Friday, McDonnell Douglas was awarded a $51.9 million contract to provide “Massive Penetrator Ordnance Integration” on B-2 aircraft.

Yes, they did. They didn’t say anything about it, but they did. THIS is the kind of diplomacy I can get behind! Don’t have to say shit, but the big guns are suddenly getting built urgently. Now, why would we use this missile that can dig down and bathe things in the cleansing fires of American purification?

This is not the kind of weapon that would be particularly useful in Iraq or Afghanistan, but it is ideally suited to hit deeply buried nuclear facilities such as Natanz or Qom in Iran.

Oh snap. We’ve okayed dollars to build things that can erase the Iranians crazy pursuit of nukes. Very nice move, Congress. Now, if we can get the boy President to use them before Israel lashes out, we may just stave off millions of deaths. I wonder what Russia is thinking…

Wait, no I don’t. We take care of our allies and ourselves before considering imperialist scum countries like Russia. I hope they give us a reason to build that missile shield again.

This country is going to war with Iran sooner or later. Let’s face facts. The most kumbaya of liberals even resist the idea of Iran with nuclear weapons, as we all recognize how dangerous and crazy the mullahs are.

We are looking at World War 3 (III?), plain and simple. As I’ve posted before, one of three things will happen:

1) Iran gets a nuclear weapon. They use it on Israel, according to their doctrine of the last 60 years. World War 3 begins with the blood of Jews sprayed all over the world, and on the hands of those who allowed this to happen. Massive war versus the arab world (sound familiar to us Christians?). You can guarantee that the US will NOT allow Jerusalem to be an Arab city. If you don’t believe me, ask yourself why we’ve stood behind Israel for decades in the face of the world.

2) Israel strikes Iran before they get a nuke. Syria, Libya, Egypt, the Saudis all go to war with Israel. Pakistan jumps in, causing India to freak out, as well. The Iraq coalition breaks down, Russia does ?, and China sells weapons for a fortune behind our backs. Massive World War, casualties in the millions (billions?), draft instated, $500/barrel oil prices.

3) The United States attacks Iran to prevent their nuke capability. A potential insurrection in Iran could crumble their power base, Israel is safe, but Iran declares war on America, threat of terror goes skyward, and we got a conflict on our hands. On the other hand, a World War is probably averted, based on the reaction of China and Russia.

In the wake of Obama’s failure to secure meaningful agreements with Iran, and his colossal failure to gladhand the Olympics, we are shown that Obama does not have the power that many in this nation thought he did in international matters. The worrisome sign we glean from this is that Obama still believes that he can talk and smile his way into a peaceful Iran. To be honest, the “agreement in principle” with Iran has already been refuted in detail by Russia, despite the White House claiming a huge victory.

This dangerous soft diplomacy has real repercussions, as Iran stalls its way to nuclear weapons and its capability to make more. Iran getting a weapon, all but imminent now, was the only guarantor of a war, and Obama threw away two golden chances to avert this without firing a shot. The electoral dissent of Iran was Obama’s last best hope to foment a deterioration of the ruling crazy-ass class, and sanctions early in the calendar year could have destroyed their economic platform to build these bombs. Now, the mullahs only need a small measure of time to start a war. Frankly, this war is on Obama’s hands.

I’ll state it clearly as I can. Obama’s foreign policy is damning millions to death. His allowance of Iranian nukes is tantamount to okaying a war. Barack Obama has very possibly damned millions to death by folding over and hiding from the Iranian issue, simply because he is concerned with global warming, socialized medicine, and community organizer issues. If Obama waits too long and Israel strikes at Iran, he will have the blood of Jews all over this Presidency. I sincerely doubt he wishes for this to happen, but you’re the President, and his own actions allowed this to begin with.

Meanwhile, we’re trying to tax ourselves into oblivion even when nobody has any of it to begin with. If we’re not careful, it will literally go up in flames. Ignoring the problem is not a possibility, Mr. President.