>>>>>>As the bumper sticker put it: "Thou Shalt Not Kill/Includes Your Enemies." I suspect we all have things worth dying for, the only question being "was it worth it?"
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Hank
>>>>>>
>>>>>>PS: the case can, and has been made -- by US Military strategists including Petraeus -- that we messed up in Vietnam, Irag and Afghanistan because we focused on killing the enemy, rather than protecting the public and providing them with better lives. While everything is open to interpretation at some level, any discussion of these wars has to begin with the analyses of those who have the most to lose by bucking the system.
>>>>>
>>>>>It's why the military spends so much time building bridges, schools, youth centers, roads, hospitals, trucking in food and supplies, etc.
>>>>
>>>>...well what they don't give to the Halliburton crooks to build anyway.
>>>
>>>Your information is as inaccurate as Bill's. The media likes to portray Haliburton as this big bucket of wasted dollars with nothing getting done except money being stolen. While the waste is true, there is plenty of building going on that is done by the military or done by locals overseen by military engineers (who typically hold engineering jobs back here in the states). Those efforts are not without their trials and setbacks but they do go on:
>>>
>>>10 months old, but accurate:
>>>http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/08/13/building-schools-in-afghanistan-not-as-simple-as-a-b-c/
>>>
>>>Sadly, because the fighting hasn't stopped, a lot of buildings (hospitals and community centers and schools) get destroyed and the building starts all over again.
>>>
>>>We cannot stop doing the right thing because of those who have taken advantage.
>>
>>Well according to this senate oversight committee meeting it's a tad more than just a little bit of waste.
>>http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/dpc_hearing062705.pdf
>>explained here http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/dpc_hearing062705.html
>>You're talking about a couple BILLION dollars here. Sure Halliburton might build a few things or whatever - but I still think there is a huge amount of backroom/underhanded b.s. associated with 'nation building' like this. Like duh bush & cheeny talk us into invading the wrong country then cheeny's halliburton company gets the contracts to rebuild it?...and now all these unsupported expenses? I don't think the media followed it enough!
>
>In the scheme of things, while certainly not a trivial amount, it is a drop in the bucket:
>
>Cost of War in Iraq
>$728,404,299,654
>Cost of War in Afghanistan
>$277,785,271,992

Ok but cheeny & halliburton have stolen a few billion dollars via a war one of them is responsible for starting in the wrong country.
If you had 1/5 of the money they stole you could have every K-3 class in the USA have no more than 10 students in it. Someone should be in jail for it & we should get our money back. This excuse that in the grand scheme of things it's ok --- I don't buy it.