OK time to get in the time machine...
Shrub is in office and Cheney is in full war-profiteer mode. Republicans are calling for gulf war 2 the revenge, wrapping themselves in the flag and calling everyone who is not immediately leaping on the bloodthirsty-war-bandwagon unpatriotic terrorists... 2013 and looking back, one "bumper sticker" summation of this horrible unspeakable and entirely avoidable tragedy:
Nine years of conflict saw 4,488 Americans killed, 32,230 U.S. wounded and more than $800 billion spent
$800 billion is a lot of money. It is also approximately 73% of the 1.1 trillion in total spending cuts that the sequester will cut. Leave aside for the moment that the sequester could have easily been avoided had the GOP not been willing to put everyone affected by sequestration on the line to diligently protect loopholes for millionaires and subsidies for oil companies. I am going to say something I haven't heard much in the media but to me seems obvious. We are now (and have been for sometime) feeling the direct results of the years of senseless, lawless, warmongering perpetrated by the Republicans and sadly enabled by Democrats.
Here is to a peaceful, just world where humanitarian actions are always more highly valued then militarization and war.
As an aside: Frankly, I am happy that $454 billion is being cut from the bloated defense budget. It does not make it OK in the slightest to cut a single dollar from education, mental health, welfare, unemployment benefits etc. And sadly I am sure the defense cuts will probably disproportionately affect veterans, hospitals and people that need it most and not the demilitarization that the whole world so desperately needs to occur in the US.