It is amazing—but not surprising—that I have seen at least 10 different lengthy Facebook posts this week by friends either defending or deriding Kanye West and his attention-grabbing stunt at the Grammys but ZERO about the fact that the president just formally submitted to Congress an authorization for the use of military force (for three years!) in "undefined areas" that include parts of Syria and Iraq.
Trust me, I understand that Kanye's antics are entertaining, but this impending war is the shit that will really, truly have an effect on your life (and on the futures of your children and grandchildren). Obama wants Congress to authorize yet another endless conflict that will cost billions of dollars and lead not just to the deaths and destruction of US soldiers (over 7,000 Americans dead and more than 100,000 diagnosed with PTSD as a result of Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) but to an untold number of civilian casualties in Syria and Iraq.
The United States entered Iraq in 2003 based on false "evidence" in an effort to avenge the 3,000 Americans who died in the 9/11 attacks (which we now know were almost certainly bankrolled by the Saudi Arabian government). So far, the Iraqi civilian death toll from the war is above 100,000—the equivalent of 33 9/11s. If you are a taxpaying citizen of the United States, these murders were committed in your name, under your flag, and with your money.
The terrorist organization known as ISIS/ISIL was created—and continues to gather support—as a direct result of the U.S.-led invasion, which left Iraq broken and divided, devoid of infrastructure and with a U.S.-chosen "leader" who merely reversed Saddam's tribal alliances (instead of favoring Sunni Iraqis and persecuting Shia, he has done the exact opposite). An entire generation of young Iraqis spent their childhoods watching fire rain down on them from the sky and having to bury their dismembered relatives; they were left floundering with few legitimate job prospects and a Scylla/Charybdis choice between supporting one enemy (the U.S.) or the other (Al Qaeda/ISIS/ISIL). (Just to be clear, this does not IN ANY WAY excuse or justify the atrocities being committed by ISIS/ISIL!!!)
Here in the U.S., private military contractors and their supporters in Congress (including South Carolina's own idiot warhawk U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham) gleefully watched their pockets get fatter and fatter as the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan drained the coffers of the federal government; meanwhile, our soldiers were sent home with traumatic brain injuries, put on antidepressants, and left to rot while waiting to get into overcrowded, understaffed hospitals as Congress continually attempted to cut funding for veteran's affairs.
The far-right members of Congress keep trying to gut social welfare programs by claiming that the national debt (created by the unfounded wars) "requires" it—how can the American people support their "representatives" trying to immerse us into ANOTHER quagmire at a time when we can't even take care of our wounded warriors from the conflicts that raged through the entire previous decade, much less establish anything even vaguely reminiscent of a "democracy" in the countries we invaded and destroyed?! #NoMoreWar
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