There’s a new offensive in Afghanistan, in which our vaunted military seems to think that they can throw out the Taliban, and get the poppy farmers some fantastically more profitable alternative living, with a marine force less than 1/100 the size of a Soviet army that also couldn’t control the province.
We’re currently spending $600-800 billion/year on defense, roughly 15 times more than any other country, against: 1) a small band of fifth-rate terrorists we hope won’t get lucky again and/or 2) a small band of fifth-rate countries promoting medievalism and/or mass starvation.
Meanwhile, Senators are cheering themselves for getting the public health care option, whatever that may mean, down to less than $100 billion/year, while unemployment rockets towards 10%.
To pretend to combat global warming and provide national health care, we could be asking Afghan poppy farmers to supply us with cheaper opiates, helping democracy at least to fill time, the donut hole, and rows of corn with New Haven firefighters.
Tags: Afghanistan, global warming, New Haven firefighters, opiates, Taliban
Mr. Meek — The U.S. military industrial complex is second only to the Farm Lobby in shaking down taxpayer dollars from a pliant Congress. On the other hand, it’s hard to argue that the American people are not getting the government they deserve. My client, Mr. Jourdan, swears that he will completely loose it if one more constituent tells him that global warming is a hoax or that the climate change bill will cost each American family $3000 a year. No, they are content to get their information from Fox and Rush & Friends. So if you see Dan over the next few days, nod understandingly and give the poor man a stiff drink.