The Christian Science Monitor reports that the continuing "war against terror" in Afghanistan could cost the US an additional $413 billion if troops are not withdrawn by 2014. If they are withdrawn by 2014 it could "only" cost $288 billion more. Now, Ned's readers know that one of his budget proposals has been to cut US military spending, now an obscene $800 billion a year, down to a level equal to the amount spent by the next biggest spender globally. In fact, the US, at a time when we cant afford to fix our water systems, our roads, provide decent jobs for everyone who wants one, or send our kids to college, spends more on war (please don't call it 'defense') than the next ten biggest global spenders COMBINED.
Ned finds this so preposterous and insulting that he cannot find mere words to describe it. We talk about cutting Social Security and Medicare because we "can't afford it." We whine about the "national debt" but our solution is to "cut earmarks."
Ned reviles the morons who dominate public discourse today and the idiots who determine public policy and only wishes they would get what he wishes for them, and of course let's throw in the sneering plutocrats to boot, always sticking their hands out for more tax cuts.
Where will we be in ten years? Ned recalls Macbeth's musing: "If we could look into the seeds of time and see which grain will grow and which will not..."
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