by Steven Dixon
Advertising director
I think the we should bring the war home. You’re probably thinking that’s a stupid idea. While I really meant to take certain things out of context. What exactly? Money mainly, cause that’s what really matters.
What really matters is keeping our soldiers safe and alive. I’m all for support of our troops. I’m just not in support of what our government does with them for their reasons.
Let’s take Libya for example. This “war” is costing the United States $2 million a day. And why are we in Libya? So that Gaddafi, the leader of the country, won’t commit any humanitarian atrocities.
Well from what I have seen on TV, the people of Libya have got it pretty much handled. I just don’t think the United States needs to be using our troops to police the world every time something goes awry in a foreign country where oil is located. We are the wealthiest nation on earth and have the strongest military.
The government states that our position requires us to place our influence where there are national interests involved. I’m sorry, but some crazed leader of a country treating his own people like crap is not a national interest of ours.
Oil is the main reason we went to Libya, as well as to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Kuwait. We don’t produce enough oil or other means of supporting our way of life here, but we need to start.
Our unemployment is at its highest since the Great Depression. During this time our country pulled together to get out from our problems with the use of war. How you ask? While we actually fought for our freedom in World War II, we also had an economic boom. We kept people working and we drove other countries out of production of certain items.
Today, we leech from other countries and send our work to them as well as rely on the investments from those countries. While we are in these countries we do everything for them shy of literally throwing money at them. We help build their buildings and roads, and we help educate them and we train them.
I realize that we have the same instances here in the United States, but just imagine what $1.2 trillion could do here. That’s the current price tag of what “war” is costing the United States since 2001.
Just think about how many building projects are at a stand still because of lack of money, including roads, bridge reconstruction, demolition of abandoned buildings, etc. We need our own money that is spent on war here at home more than in other countries.
Again, I support the troops of our great nation, but I do not support some of these politicians who don’t know what they’re doing. We would still have our freedom as a nation if we weren’t in the countries we’re in now.
Here are some numbers to mull over a little bit, thanks to CNN.com. Over 7,000 people have died in Afghanistan and Iraq, and over 45,000 people have been wounded.
I’m assuming people who have lost a family member(s) in this war would agree that if it weren’t for the war they would not be dead. I’m glad that we avenged the World Trade Towers incident and finally caught Osama Bin Laden.
I just feel that our government should be worrying about what is going on here at home. They need to recognize some of the problems that we have here that should be addressed rather than putting effort into other countries as much.
Besides, we have Homeland Security now, we don’t have to necessarily be out abroad to protect our country and freedom. I continue to show support for our troops, they are a brave crowd. We still need to tell our congressmen and women that we need to start worrying more about the problems here at home, and not over there.