>>>>>>>>>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.
>>
>>You mean the war against the country that had used weapons of mass destruction in the 1980s against Iran and their own people, had invaded Kuwait and looted the entire country, and played hide the weapons for a decade while violating UN sanctions and costing the US how many billion $/year trying to keep them in check and enforce the UN sanctions (Enforce and UN in the same sentence - how ironic). The country whose leader after being captured let out that he was in fact trying to keep the rest of the world thinking he still had WMD capability in order to keep them at bay? The country that must have magically used every last nerve gas and mustard gas weapon against the kurds and never held any in reserve or rebuilt the stockpile? The country that has enough desert to bury Kuwait in where nobody could find it? That one?
>>
>>Yeah - we should have walked off and lt the UN take care of things like they are with North Korea, Somalia, Sudan - like they did with the Balkins. Yeah - that's the ticket. I'd feel safer then.
>
>It would all be so much more palatable if everyone just said what it was really about; our entire way of life needs vast amounts of energy i.e. oil, gas. They have it. We want it. We have the biggest stick so we'll take it. Instead we add insult to injury and pretend that its all about democracy and saving the world from dictators and bringing freedom and other moralizing BS. Call a spade a spade.

What oil have we taken from Iraq?

What oil have we taken from Afghanistan?