$300 million a day ($300,000,000/day). How many mental health counselors, teachers, doctors, nurses, plumbers, vaccine and orphan drug researchers, food, water research, cheap drugs and general betterment could that provide??
Regarding the draft - I've heard if there was a draft, the parents' screaming would keep deaths down. If legislators knew they could not use Jonny and Janey as cannon fodder without repercussions, they would be a lot more careful about military adventures.
I saw a USA Today story about an interpreter named Mohammed (who, according to USA Today, has a wife and 4 children and probably goes by "Mo" to his American friends), who is pleading with POTUS to get him and his family out of Afghanistan. I didn't see his address, but I'm sure that was just an oversight on the part of USA Today... I'm sure the Taliban won't go looking for him, now that they know he saved the lives of the war machinists in 2008.
Update: The WSJ has now posted a really nice pic of him, Biden, Kerry and Hagel. That should help him hide! To all of you non-killy Afghans: If you see this man, don't tell the killy ones where he is!!
Not the catch, the point.You get the pharmacy, or their service, to portion out the meds into morning, lunchtime and evening sets in a blisterpack. Particularly useful for people who have lots of different meds and memory or attention problems. The right doses are in the blister, and it has the Day/Date and Time for taking it so they can check if they forgot easily too.
i met a family on holiday in italy years ago - their son was about to be deployed to afghanistan and they were taking a family holiday together before he went. his mum was quietly desperate over the whole idea of him going there, and i often wonder how he went and if he's ok
Something I don't see discussed is that the problem with "America as World Police" is not only the economic costs of feeding the military-industrial beast, but the cultural costs: fetishisation of military service combined with the economic draft, downstream militarisation of policing, and gun violence which comes from a combination of the economic importance of the arms industry and a culture which teaches us that the highest good is a good guy killing people with guns.
Right. The Afghan state was not being built for its own people's needs, but for the needs of the US's War On Terror. Which is why it fell to bits in a week.
A draft will be for who it's always been for. The ones who are too poor and downtrodden already. The ones who can't buy a deferment. Or buy a high lottery number.
The ones drafted wouldn't have a voice too start with. No one would care what they had to say after a draft started.
Besides, doctrine would revert back to just throwing unlimited bodies at an objective. Minimal training and off to the front you go. There will always be another 100 or 1000 to replace you with.
"Frequent repeated deployments of our highly trained soldiers (broadly termed to include all armed forces branches, both combat and support personnel) quickly become bone-tired, spiritually depleted, and psychologically unable to continue to bear the stress to which they are subjected. This is not a criticism of their professed will to serve, their courage, or any inherent shortcomings they may have, real or implied. It is a criticism of our conceptualization of them as super-warriors who can continuously meet ill-conceived tasks they are fed into by their political and military leaders."
I taught the 2 sisters of a veteran who finally offed himself rather than face 5th deployment overseas. He was a bright articulate humane guy who had been involved with local government and the community. He left a wife and a child behind, but this was all too much for him to bear.
Oh no! The dreaded Caravan!
.
Oh no! The dreaded Caravan!
.
$300 million a day ($300,000,000/day). How many mental health counselors, teachers, doctors, nurses, plumbers, vaccine and orphan drug researchers, food, water research, cheap drugs and general betterment could that provide??
Regarding the draft - I've heard if there was a draft, the parents' screaming would keep deaths down. If legislators knew they could not use Jonny and Janey as cannon fodder without repercussions, they would be a lot more careful about military adventures.
What about for water?
I saw a USA Today story about an interpreter named Mohammed (who, according to USA Today, has a wife and 4 children and probably goes by "Mo" to his American friends), who is pleading with POTUS to get him and his family out of Afghanistan. I didn't see his address, but I'm sure that was just an oversight on the part of USA Today... I'm sure the Taliban won't go looking for him, now that they know he saved the lives of the war machinists in 2008.
Update: The WSJ has now posted a really nice pic of him, Biden, Kerry and Hagel. That should help him hide! To all of you non-killy Afghans: If you see this man, don't tell the killy ones where he is!!
Also, too, no American canine personnel were left behind.
Not the catch, the point.You get the pharmacy, or their service, to portion out the meds into morning, lunchtime and evening sets in a blisterpack. Particularly useful for people who have lots of different meds and memory or attention problems. The right doses are in the blister, and it has the Day/Date and Time for taking it so they can check if they forgot easily too.
i met a family on holiday in italy years ago - their son was about to be deployed to afghanistan and they were taking a family holiday together before he went. his mum was quietly desperate over the whole idea of him going there, and i often wonder how he went and if he's ok
I want a jacket like that.
Something I don't see discussed is that the problem with "America as World Police" is not only the economic costs of feeding the military-industrial beast, but the cultural costs: fetishisation of military service combined with the economic draft, downstream militarisation of policing, and gun violence which comes from a combination of the economic importance of the arms industry and a culture which teaches us that the highest good is a good guy killing people with guns.
Right. The Afghan state was not being built for its own people's needs, but for the needs of the US's War On Terror. Which is why it fell to bits in a week.
For us? No. Others will have water wars before we do.
Doubtful.
A draft will be for who it's always been for. The ones who are too poor and downtrodden already. The ones who can't buy a deferment. Or buy a high lottery number.
The ones drafted wouldn't have a voice too start with. No one would care what they had to say after a draft started.
Besides, doctrine would revert back to just throwing unlimited bodies at an objective. Minimal training and off to the front you go. There will always be another 100 or 1000 to replace you with.
"Frequent repeated deployments of our highly trained soldiers (broadly termed to include all armed forces branches, both combat and support personnel) quickly become bone-tired, spiritually depleted, and psychologically unable to continue to bear the stress to which they are subjected. This is not a criticism of their professed will to serve, their courage, or any inherent shortcomings they may have, real or implied. It is a criticism of our conceptualization of them as super-warriors who can continuously meet ill-conceived tasks they are fed into by their political and military leaders."
I taught the 2 sisters of a veteran who finally offed himself rather than face 5th deployment overseas. He was a bright articulate humane guy who had been involved with local government and the community. He left a wife and a child behind, but this was all too much for him to bear.