For Midterm Voters, War Is Off the Radar

[unhappycamper]

For Midterm Voters, War Is Off the Radar
By DALIA SUSSMAN and MEGAN THEE-BRENAN
Published: October 15, 2010

It has been going on there for nine years and counting. Nearly 100,000 American troops are currently deployed there. More than 1,300 American service members have lost their lives there. The United States has spent over $300 billion on the effort so far. Yet polling suggests that the war in Afghanistan is barely a blip on voters’ radars as the midterm elections approach.

Given the condition of the economy and the high unemployment rate, the fact that most Americans largely cite those problems as the nation’s top issues is not surprising. What is surprising is that hardly any Americans cite the war in Afghanistan at all.

In a nationwide New York Times/CBS News poll conducted last month, 60 percent of Americans said that the economy or jobs were the most important problems facing the country. A mere 3 percent mentioned Afghanistan or the war.

A Pew poll earlier this month found that 23 percent of Americans said they were following the situation in Afghanistan very closely, far fewer than the 43 percent who were following the condition of the economy very closely.

When an ABC News/Washington Post poll released in early September directly asked how important a number of issues would be in deciding how to vote for Congress in November, the economy, health care and the budget deficit were all rated as very important or the single most important issue more often than the war was.




unhappycamper comment: This is absolutely amazing.

In the 2011 national budget, the United States military claims 58% of all discretionary spending. Interest on the national debt claims 7% of all discretionary spending. 65% of all discretionary spending is stolen taken from the pot and no one notices.

Amazing.

[w8liftinglady]

1. Which is why I remind them-weekly-that we still have TWO going on

I hate to soil their beautiful minds , but they "DO" support the troops,you know.I hear about it twice a year,here.

[TexasObserver]

2. I agree. It's not an issue for the election.

War!
Huh!
Good God, yall.
Who gives a crap about it?
Absolutely no one.
Say it again!

Well, a few of us do, but not the electorate. The electorate is about one thing: Jobs. Weak jobs. Low pay. Low hours. Lower benefits.

The electorate makes no connection between the trillions that go into the war machine instead of into the economy here in America. We could have rebuilt the infra structure here in America the past nine years with the money pissed away killing random peasants in two countries that have absolutely nothing to do with our major problems.

[unhappycamper]

4. "We could have rebuilt the infra structure here in America the past nine years with the money pissed

away killing random peasants in two countries that have absolutely nothing to do with our major problems."

How true. :(

[TexasObserver]

6. Can you imagine what a trillion dollars would have done here?

Imagine the additional $6-7 trillion those dollars would have generated in the economy. Imagine the good jobs it would have kept going, or created. Imagine the bridges that wouldn't be falling down, the levees that wouldn't have failed, the lives and assets that wouldn't have been lost to hurricanes or floods.

[w8liftinglady]

7. you are so right.we are devolving into the countries we are so quick to condemn.

[TexasObserver]

8. These are the kind of decisions that end empires.

This IS the history of declining empires. They extend themselves militarily until they bleed the home country of its assets, while alienating all those they abuse in other countries.

THIS is how the Roman Empire killed itself.

[Fumesucker]

3. "War is off the radar"

Mission Accomplished.

[kgnu_fan]

5. Because of War, we are in deep trouble, so it should be in our radar

Put it back there!!