Views and News: Why are we there?
By Al Duncan
According to the Department of Defense fiscal 2010 budget, $663.7 billion or 12.7 percent of the nation”s annual budget went to the military. The U.S. has been in Afghanistan for 10 years with approximately 48,644 total casualties. We”ve been in Iraq for eight years, with approximately 900,338 total casualties and civilian serious injuries around 1,556,156, according to CNN and Icasualties, two online sources.
So why are we in Iraq?
Scott Shepard does a great job summarizing the motives for the U.S. invading Iraq in an article for Cox News Service: “President Bush, having repeatedly linked Saddam Hussein to the terrorist organization behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said yesterday, ?There”s no evidence that the deposed Iraqi leader had a hand in those attacks, in contrast to the belief of most Americans.””
“These comments came in response to Vice President Dick Cheney”s assertion Sunday on NBC”s ?Meet The Press” program that Iraq was the ?geographic base” of the terrorists behind the attacks on New York and Washington.
“Cheney was also the first to deny any ties between Saddam and Sept. 11, saying, ?we don”t know” whether Saddam was connected to the attacks, but admitted, ?It”s not surprising that people make that connection.””
“In speech after speech, however, the president has strongly linked Saddam and al-Qaida, the terrorist organization of bin Laden, the Saudi whose followers hijacked jetliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and rural Pennsylvania.”
Martin Chulov of the guardian.co.uk, reported in Jan. 2010 that Iraq was once the pinnacle of the Middle East with running water, electricity and a thriving economy. Today, Iraq is a country in environmental ruin with high levels of radiation, increased rates of cancer and birth defects.
So why are we in Afghanistan?
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and 15 of the 19 alleged hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001. But according to the New York Times, Amir Taherl, July 11, 2002, said, “bin Laden is dead. The fugitive died in December and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan.”
FOX News reported Dec. 26, 2001, “Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December.”
And Lila York of OpEdNews reports Jan. 2010: “It”s official. Osama bin Laden died on Dec. 13, 2001, around the time George W. Bush stopped promising to ?get him, dead-or-alive. Eight years after the fact, and without missing a beat, bin Laden”s name was replaced by that of Mullah Omar in CNN and FOX news coverage as ?the greatest threat to American national security.” It was the perfect Orwellian rewrite as we are likely to see.”
On Nov. 18, 2009, Congressman Ron Paul spoke on the House floor about the United State”s continued presence in Afghanistan, excerpts follow: “Under the Constitution, you”re supposed to declare the war, know who your enemy is, know when you can declare victory and bring the troops home.
“Sept. 11 changed everything, there were 15 individuals from Saudi Arabia, a few from Yemen and a few from Egypt. Of course, not one single Afghani did anything to us. We said it”s the Taliban. It”s the people of Afghanistan. And yet in 1989 when the Soviets were wrecking the country we were allied with Osama bin Laden and supporting him, we called him a freedom fighter then.”
Rep. Paul continues, “We haven”t won the hearts and minds of the people. They don”t really have a national government. There”s a lot of dissension and it”s a miserable place. I mean, it”s just a total failure. And our troops shouldn”t be put in harm”s way unless it”s absolutely necessary.
“We”ve spent trillions of dollars on this operation, now we”re broke and it”s time to come home.”
Here”s one reason we”re in Afghanistan. According Victor Thorn of RAWA, 1-27-10, “Since U.S. intervention into Afghanistan produces 93 percent of the world”s opium, generating nearly $200 billion in revenue.”
When are we going to put a stop to this unjustified destruction and loss of lives?
I love America and I still believe it”s the greatest country in the history of the world. But I agree with Congressman Paul, we have no business borrowing trillions of dollars to destroy a country and a people that have done absolutely nothing to us. I”m also a firm believer in supporting our troops, but not for an unjust and deceptive cause. In this case, support means bring the troops home to their families and friends.
Al Duncan is a author, businessman and Record-Bee columnist. He can be contacted at alduncan@pacific.net.
