What a sick f'ing joke.
I am not sure what else to say about the state of Washington, D.C. and its wars.
Just in Friday's reporting:
- Senator Chuck Hagel, during Thursday's confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense, fielded 271 references to Israel and Iran, a war U.S. senators, war policy ideologues and the defense industry want badly, while Afghanistan, the war going badly that we do have, received 27 references...
- Alex Their, the U.S. Agency for International Development's Director for the Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs, bold-facedly claimed success in Afghanistan by citing GDP and life expectancy growth as a result of the billions upon billions of dollars the U.S. has spent in that country since 2001. The reality is that nearly all of the GDP growth in Afghanistan is attributable to foreign assistance. The U.S. and its allies have not developed and will not leave a sustainable Afghan economy post 2014. The one exception, of course, is the booming and highly profitable Afghan-government-sponsored drug trade. As for life expectancy, Afghans experienced a greater increase in average life expectancy under the 1980s Soviet occupation and a near-same increase during the 1990s civil war and Taliban rule, as they have experienced under the American occupation. Is Mr. Their stupid or is he a liar?
- The U.S. Veterans Administration reports that their previous estimate of 18 veteran suicides per day, based upon reporting by 18 states, is too low. The new estimate, based upon reporting by a whopping twenty-one states, is now 22 veteran suicides per day. A little more effort and focus on behalf of the VA in studying veteran suicides brought about a 22 percent increase in the rate of suicide. What will the numbers finally tally when the VA assembles data on a national level, rather than just extrapolating data from two-fifths of the country? May God recognize our yellow ribbon car magnets and free baseball tickets to veterans as recompense for our ignorance and lack of care.
What a sick f'ing joke.