| |||||
In his recently published memoir, “Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior,” General Hugh Shelton, who served as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1997 to 2001, called the Iraq war “unnecessary” and said that the Bush team went to war “based on a series of lies.” Shelton also said that [...] Despite flowery speeches, discussions of “transition”, and 50,000 “non-combat” troops remaining, America is still losing men and women and spending tens of billions of dollars in Iraq. And as violence escalates once again, and a new government remains elusive nearly six months after parliamentary elections, some worry that U.S. forces may have to resume “combat” [...] Cartoon from The Independent In 2003 Donald Rumsfeld estimated a war with Iraq would cost $60 billion. Five years later, the cost of Iraq war operations is over 10 times that figure. So what’s behind the ballooning dollar signs? Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilme’s exhaustedly researched book, “The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of [...] Osama bin Laden was within the grasp of US forces in late 2001 and could have been caught if then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld hadn’t rejected calls for reinforcements, a hard-hitting US Senate report says. The report indicates this happened about Dec. 2001, after 9/11, but before the start of the Iraq War. With bin [...] From Rand Corp. research About 18.5 percent of US soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq currently have PTSD or depression. 19.5 percent report traumatic brain injuries. An estimated 31 percent of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have a mental health condition or reported experiencing a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) About 300,000 currently [...] The wars have mostly vanished from the headlines. Lots of people are still getting killed and maimed, displaced too. Yet because the violence has apparently lessened because of the surge, the wars are no longer front page news. The presidential election campaigns are also surely a reason, as campaign news is becoming all-consuming, destroying [...] |  | ||||
Copyright © 2012 Politics in the Zeros - All Rights Reserved | |||||
Recent Comments