We can not afford to be at war
Published July 1, 2010
By Amy Goodman
"General Petraeus is a military that is constantly at war with the facts" and began a MoveOn.org ad of 2007 against General David Petraeus, then deliver a report that to Congress on the war situation in Iraq. George W. Bush was then chairman, and MoveOn accused Petraeus of "making up" the financial statements of the war for the White House. The campaign asked "General Petrae 
General us or Traitor?" In a full-page notice in the Washington Post . MoveOn was heavily criticized by the campaign, but stood firm in place.
Three years later, with Barack Obama as president, Petraeus became their man in Afghanistan and pulled MoveOn critical content of your website. Why? Because the first Bush war, the Afghan war became Obama, the gutter. United States eventually negotiate its withdrawal from Afghanistan. The only difference between them now or later will be the number of deaths on both sides, and the amount of money (paid) will be spent.
confirmation of Petraeus as a military commander in Afghanistan was never in doubt. He replaces General Stanley McChrystal, who resigned shortly after they became public his criticism of the civilian leadership of the war in a recent article in Rolling Stone magazine.
statistics Afghanistan, Obama's Vietnam, are increasing. In June there were at least 100 American casualties, the highest number of deaths since the invasion in 2001. 2010 is on track to be the year with the largest number of American deaths. Soldiers from other countries of the "coalition" have suffered a similar fate. Petraeus is becoming commander in Afghanistan not only U.S. military forces, but of all the forces since the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan are in charge of NATO.
U.S. soldiers, who are expected to increase to 98,000 this year, far more than other countries. The public and political support for the war in many of these countries is declining.
reporter Michael Hastings, who wrote the article in Rolling Stone, traveled to Paris to interview McChrystal. What is not captured much attention was the description of Hastings why McChrystal was there:
"It is in France to sell his new war strategy to our NATO allies to maintain the fiction, in essence, that of we really have allies. Since McChrystal took office a year ago, the Afghan war has become the exclusive property of the United States. Opposition to the war within the countries 'allies' and has ended the coalition government in the Netherlands, forced the resignation of the German president and caused both Canada and the Netherlands announced the withdrawal of its 4,500 troops. McChrystal is in Paris to prevent the French, who have lost over 40 soldiers in Afghanistan, they shake their legs and begin to doubt, "Hastings wrote in his article published in Rolling Stone.
WikiLeaks.org website, which received international attention after publishing a leaked video of a U.S. attack helicopter that showed the indiscriminate killing of civilians and a Reuters cameraman and his driver in Baghdad, has just published a confidential memo from the CIA detailing potential public relations strategies to counteract the decline in public support the Afghan war. The CIA memo says: "If the national policy forces the Dutch to withdraw, the other political parties could cite as a precedent for 'listen to voters." The French and German leaders have taken steps over the past two years to avoid an increase in the opposition, but the vulnerability could be even greater now. "
I just returned from Toronto, where I was doing the coverage of the G20 summit and protests that took place during those days. The assembled leaders pledged, among other things, reduce government deficits by 50 percent by 2013. In the U.S., that means cutting 800,000 million dollars, or about 20 percent of the budget. Two Nobel Prize winning economists expressed serious prognosis. Joseph Stiglitz said: "In many cases this type of austerity measures have led to ... to move from recession to depression." And Paul Krugman wrote: "Who will pay the price for this triumph of orthodoxy? The answer is: tens of millions of unemployed workers, many of whom will lose their jobs for years, and some of it never to return to work. "
To achieve the promised cuts, Obama would raise taxes and cut social programs like Social Security and Medicare. Or should cut the budget for the war. I say "war budget" because it should not be confused with the defense budget. Cities and states across the country face budget crises devastating. Pensions are being eliminated. Foreclosures continue at record levels. A true defense budget should underpin our schools, our streets, our cities, our safety net. The House of Representatives of the United States is under pressure to approve this week a supplementary budget of 33,000 million dollars for the war in Afghanistan.
We can not afford to be at war.
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