Strap yourselves in, and prepare for 10 years of "AfPak" war.

[reprehensor]

Nope, the U.S. government can't pay for "health care" for the masses, not when there's "terror" to be defeated in Afghanistan! And Pakistan!

10 more years... this, according to Australian military expert David Kilcullen;

...Kilcullen was counter-insurgency advisor to both Condoleeza Rice when she was US Secretary of State, and General David Petraeus, helping the American commander plan the ‘surge’ which reduced the level of carnage in Iraq. He ended up with the grand and rather convoluted title of Chief Strategist in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. A book he has recently written, The Accidental Guerilla, is being avidly studied by British and American military bound for the battlefield of Afghanistan...

...And the future? “We are looking at ten years at least in Afghanistan, and that is the best case scenario and at least half of that will be pretty major combat. This is the commitment needed, and this is what people in America and Britain should be told, and they should be told that there will be a cost involved.”

Priorities, man.

[Horse with no Name]

1. I would LOVE peace on earth

However, it isn't going to happen.
I think we have plenty of domestic issues that could use our money and time and I really just don't care about what is going on on that side of the world.
It is unstable. It will continue to be unstable next year and the next year and the next year...
However, if we mind our own fucking business, then nobody has any reason to bother us.
I am TIRED of asking our military and their families to fight endless wars.
This is NOT what they signed up for. It just isn't.
IF, as a country, we are going to do this, it is time to bring the draft back and quit shouldering the agendas of a few on the backs of young men and women who will never be able to ENJOY anything that their sacrifice brought forth. Kids who were looking to put themselves through school with some cash from the military, kids that weren't able to get mcjobs anywhere else...you know, the POOR kids. I'm awfully damned tired of these SAME young men and women serving their 4th, 5th and 6th tours in a land far away for a country at home that isn't really grateful for their sacrifice.

[JohnyCanuck]

2. You want health care?

Well then, join the army. Oh wait, that might not be such a good idea after all.

Military guinea pigs

[Hannah Bell]

3. he seems to be suggesting 10 more years in addition to the 8 we've already spent.

what a orwellian farce.

[JohnyCanuck]

4. Orwellian is right. Goldstein is still on the loose.

Dollars to donuts he won't be any closer to capture after another 10 years either.

[Hannah Bell]

6. obama/goldstein. now it's perfect.

[lunatica]

5. And with no guarantee that we'll 'win' anything in the end

It might be time to think and maybe stop waging endless war for nothing but profit. Oil, resources, gun-running, empire, or just plain hubris. The problems on this planet need to be addressed with new ideas because the old ones got us into this mess.

[buckiboy]

7. its always

Its always about money, power or religion.

[galileoreloaded]

11. Actually, it's always been about natural resources.....

the three things you mentioned are byproducts and control mechanisms.

[corpseratemedia]

8. ongoing for-profit wars let

the trickle-down-slash-govt.-spending ideology continue to survive

it's a patriotic, unquestionable excuse so that we can't afford "entitlements" and public solutions to the massive collapse created by reaganism

[midnight]

9. There was a post yesterday that showed Sen. Kerry investment

in military co. It was something like 20 mil. worth of investments. That makes war so profitable for some of our elected officials. My congressman, jim sennsenbrenner was less. He was only invested in between 5-7 million. So those are some of our elect. officials priorities.

[HOLOS]

10. POPPIES AND OIL TO STEAL