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Stunning Statistics About the War Every American Should Know
Contrary to popular belief, the US actually has 189,000 personnel on the ground in Afghanistan right now—and that number is quickly rising.
A hearing in Sen. Claire McCaskill's Contract Oversight subcommittee on contracting in Afghanistan has highlighted some important statistics that provide a window into the extent to which the Obama administration has picked up the Bush-era war privatization baton and sprinted with it. Overall, contractors now comprise a whopping 69% of the Department of Defense's total workforce, "the highest ratio of contractors to military personnel in US history." That's not in one war zone-that's the Pentagon in its entirety.
DynCorp instructor with police recruits in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, June 2008. In Afghanistan, the Obama administration blows the Bush administration out of the privatized water. (File image via TPM) In Afghanistan, the Obama administration blows the Bush administration out of the privatized water. According to a memo
[PDF] released by McCaskill's staff, "From June 2009 to September 2009,
there was a 40% increase in Defense Department contractors in
Afghanistan. During the same period, the number of armed private
security contractors working for the Defense Department in Afghanistan
doubled, increasing from approximately 5,000 to more than 10,000."
At present, there are 104,000 Department of Defense contractors in Afghanistan. According to a report this week from the Congressional Research Service, as a result of the coming surge of 30,000 troops in Afghanistan, there may be up to 56,000 additional contractors deployed. But here is another group of contractors that often goes unmentioned: 3,600 State Department contractors and 14,000 USAID contractors. That means that the current total US force in Afghanistan is approximately 189,000 personnel (68,000 US troops and 121,000 contractors). And remember, that's right now. And that, according to McCaskill, is a conservative estimate. A year from now, we will likely see more than 220,000 US-funded personnel on the ground in Afghanistan.
The US has spent more than $23 billion on contracts in Afghanistan since 2002. By next year, the number of contractors will have doubled since 2008 when taxpayers funded over $8 billion in Afghanistan-related contracts.
Despite the massive number of contracts and contractors in Afghanistan, oversight is utterly lacking. "The increase in Afghanistan contracts has not seen a corresponding increase in contract management and oversight," according to McCaskill's briefing paper. "In May 2009, DCMA [Defense Contract Management Agency] Director Charlie Williams told the Commission on Wartime Contracting that as many as 362 positions for Contracting Officer's Representatives (CORs) in Afghanistan were currently vacant."
A former USAID official, Michael Walsh, the former director of USAID's Office of Acquisition and Assistance and Chief Acquisition Officer, told the Commission that many USAID staff are "administering huge awards with limited knowledge of or experience with the rules and regulations." According to one USAID official, the agency is "sending too much money, too fast with too few people looking over how it is spent." As a result, the agency does not "know ... where the money is going."
The Obama administration is continuing the Bush-era policy of hiring contractors to oversee contractors. According to the McCaskill memo:
In Afghanistan, USAID is relying on contractors to provide oversight of its large reconstruction and development projects. According to information provided to the Subcommittee, International Relief and Development (IRD) was awarded a five-year contract in 2006 to oversee the $1.4 billion infrastructure contract awarded to a joint venture of the Louis Berger Group and Black and Veatch Special Projects. USAID has also awarded a contract Checci and Company to provide support for contracts in Afghanistan.
The private security industry and the US government have pointed to the Synchronized Predeployment and Operational Tracker(SPOT) as evidence of greater government oversight of contractor activities. But McCaskill's subcommittee found that system utterly lacking, stating: "The Subcommittee obtained current SPOT data showing that there are currently 1,123 State Department contractors and no USAID contractors working in Afghanistan." Remember, there are officially 14,000 USAID contractors and the official monitoring and tracking system found none of these people and less than half of the State Department contractors.
As for waste and abuse, the subcommittee says that the Defense Contract Audit Agency identified more than $950 million in questioned and unsupported costs submitted by Defense Department contracts for work in Afghanistan. That's 16% of the total contract dollars reviewed.
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104 Comments so far
Show AllEven kings and dictators can actually be quite good and we have a current example with several Eastern European countries where the populations seriously regret having accepted to be suckered into adopting the West's capitalism and so-called democracy, wishing they were living with the dictatorship they had before.
That clearly can't be said of Obama, Bush Jr, Clinton, GHW Bush, Reagan, and many other U.S. presidential administrations and the extremely corrupt, capitalist, ... U.S. federal government that really represents ... not, We, The People, but "Corporate America". The difference is that this dictatorship tries to keep itself disguised as a democracy, even when this "king" has been rendered NAKED for many decades, already. And Obama was already very naked before being elected to the presidency, but his weak-minded (and worse) supporters refused to OPEN their eyes and minds, to see him as he had already shown himself to be. And Hilary Clinton wouldn't have been good; she would've been the typical political and corporatist whore that she is, excuse my language.
"wishing they were living with the dictatorship they had before.".
Sorry Mike, but I used to live there and know some of those people. They were losers then and are still losers now. Or they are the children of losers whose genes just propagated to the next generation.
Your discriminatory, derogatory, assinine, etcetera view is worthless junk from another American bigot, narcissist, etcetera.
People in Eastern European countries may regret (more like feel confused) about rushing towards what they thought was a better deal, but I've never seen anyone wishing to go back to their dictatorships. Unless they were part of the elite back then, or brainwashed, nationalistic Russian kids today - yes, they do exist.
There were one or more recent reports about the so-called western democracy, where there is no real democracy, and capitalism, which we all know to be RACKET, ruthless, corporatist, etcetera, certainly would not do any country of Eastern Europe or anywhere else any good if these ways are adopted. Like was reported, there is a lot more criminality in both general society and the governments, politicians, law enforcement chiefs, etcetera. And the report(s) said that these or some of these populations didn't like dictatorship when it's what they had, but regret having adopted the ways of the West, which we know to be rotten as hell, and like a major cancer on our societies, for now the politicians are too often and very corrupt, capitastically, there relatively is a lot of criminality compared to be before, and the cost of living has increased a lot, while cost of living minimally was very bearable or even friendly, before.
Your democracy is NO example to follow; it's corrupted, very much. Your capitalism is CANCER on the USA and the rest of this world.
It can't be difficult to be better, but once western CANCER takes over, then a cancerous state is the result.
and what would you suggest?
Mike Corbeil, I want you to re-read what you wrote. Here, let me make it easy for you: "Even kings and dictators can actually be quite good and we have a current example with several Eastern European countries where the populations seriously regret having accepted to be suckered into adopting the West's capitalism and so-called democracy, wishing they were living with the dictatorship they had before."
I simply pointed out that I hadn't heard of anyone wishing to go back to the earlier dictatorships. AS SIMPLE AS THAT AND NOTHING MORE. You seem to be holding the notion that it's either that kind of a dictatorship under a communist regime, or the current capitalist system. I never said or implied that western "democracy" or the capitalist system was the way to go.
To make it clear, here's something I posted on a different story: "Stalin was by no means averse to invading and creating Soviet satellites... Ask the people in Poland, Czechoslovakia and other countries in Eastern Europe. People there have such bitter memories of those days that it's easy for their ruling elite today to openly side with the US, join NATO and send their soldiers to Afghanistan."
What I meant there was that these people, to escape from one horror, walked into another trap - led by their own elite (who of course benefit from the current system).
I'm there (East Europe) now and I see very little questioning of the rush into Capitalism represented in the media. Mostly, it's banks advertising home mortgage loans and lots of glitzy product ads. Sound familiar?
No one wants to go back to dictatorship, but if after the cycle of Captitalism runs its course here as it did in the USA, people will be questioning why they bought into it in the first place.
"represented in the media"? You must think we're all idiots in North America, but we're not; many of us KNOW to not trust the media.
And, nevertheless, what you see of the overall societies there is likely a very, very limited view, like is the case for most people on Earth. Unless a person spends a LOT of time reading from various alternative media, while only using the really qualitative ones, then we're definitely going to have an extremely limited view of reality.
Large numbers of the populations of Eastern European countries that have been joining and others still thinking of joining NATO and the EU are against this, and many are against the U.S. and NATO militarisation of their countries, which Obama supposedly has been drawing away from following through on, after Bush Jr and Cheney put the U.S. on this path while totally ignoring the opposition in these countries. The media there can be propagandist just as much as media in western countries are.
I meant that I see very little questioning of Capitalism HERE, in Eastern Europe. Most people here are more concerned about re-doing their bathrooms or buying / building a new house, at least that's what it seems like if you watch the TV over here or read the papers.
And no one I've talked with wants to return to the dictatorship that was smashed in 1989, nor back to that failed economic model. But from going from state dictated economy to USA style capitalism, they have yet to learn the hard lessons that the American workers are learning now.
I sure will be glad when some other nation invades the USA and causes a civil war - then those of us who are sick and tired of our government will have a choice as to whose side we fight for - you know, just like we tried in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan!
Contrary to popular right-wing belief, Red Dawn is not a porn movie.
Good one!!!!
See my post further below for the articles by TheCommonIlls.blogspot.com and Dahr Jamail.
Any president who encourages the privatization of military activity is a fool. It's bad enough that we have such a huge and powerful military/industrial complex. The purpose of corporations is to make money and gain power, period. There is no oversight by the people, no checks and balances. These military corporations are totally out of the control of our government. Corporations like Blackwater (pardon, Xe Services LLC) are manifestations of the oligarchy in all it's ugly glory. Substitute "the third reich' for America, and those who support such corporations sound like just what they are--fascists.
Americans have been spoon fed the icon of the great American hero by our movie industry, but this icon is just another way of brainwashing sophomoric and testosterone addicted males into the 'patriotic' frame of mind that Blackwater needs for it's recruitment programs. And any sane person who has any contact with the video games being sold to children nowadays has to be dismayed. The ex-soldier who is currently a soldier for hire is not the kind of hero any sane person would admire. He is maleness run amuck. The world does not need these psychopaths, much less having them model for our young males.
"These military corporations are totally out of the control of our government."
It's fitting, for the government is totally out of control, itself. It's the government that makes the military corporations immune to laws, just like the government treats itself. So the obvious correction that needs to be made, first, is the government. Until this is done, the military corporations will continue to get away with WAR FOR RACKET while profiting the politicians and many other people, investors.
Re. your second paragraph, the part about soldiers, see the two articles linked in my post further below and by TheCommonIlls.blogspot.com and Dahr Jamail.
I'm glad to know that Claire McCaskill's Oversight Committee even exists. Thanks, Mr. Scahill, for continuing to track the military contracting issue.
One would think that ordinary, even blue dog-leaning Democrats would just be salivating to launch a full blown investigation into fraud, waste and war profiteering in Iraq - a Congressional inquiry patterned after the Truman Committee during WWII. At least this Committee is taking a step in the right direction as regards Afghanistan.
All those billions and billions of dollars flowing. 362 audit oversight positions vacant. Waste is a secondary issue. The invitation to outright theft of public money should be the primary focus. It's a no brainer in more ways than one.
Bill from Saginaw
But think of the people receiving salaries from these military boondoggles. The same guys who oppose "government intrusion" into healthcare through a public program are collecting taxpayer money (indirectly) for doing a crappy job on a task that accomplishes nothing or, even worse, positively harms the nation.
No one will launch a significant investigation and even if they do, the report will lie unread in an office drawer. So many people are making a living off this that politicians will never act to shut it down.
"The private security industry and the US government have pointed to the Synchronized Predeployment and Operational Tracker (SPOT) as evidence of greater government oversight of contractor activities. But McCaskill's subcommittee found that system utterly lacking..."
This is a common trick - gut the so-called 'oversight' committees by underfunding, under-manning, or appointing corrupt 'wink-wink' members. These then become a buffer against any accountability.
A glaring example from a year ago: When I found out my rep was voting for the bank bailout scam (TARP) I called to ask, WTF? Now my rep at the time was the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Governmental Reform (Henry "douche-bag-of-justice" Waxman, D-CA). I was told that he agreed that it was a large sum of money, but as it was necessary, he was working on an amendment that would give the GAO more oversight.
The GAO (along with the SEC, the EPA, etc.) has been de-fanged for years.
And we all know how well that TARP oversight went, don't we?
"This is a common trick - gut the so-called 'oversight' committees by underfunding, under-manning, or appointing corrupt 'wink-wink' members."
The "or" should be "and/or" or else "and", and the latter is perhaps the more fitting correction; unless underfunding, undermanning and appointing corrupt members are not all true. If they're not all true, then I'd use "and/or", since you're talking about this being "a common trick" and we commonly have at least two of underfunding, undermanning and appointing of yes-men happening with committees; like with the 9-11 Commission, f.e. (The latter apparently wasn't undermanned, but former commissioners have said the Commission was underfunded, and yes-men, though perhaps worse with some of the commissioners, or the chief ones, were definitely appointed.)
Is there an end to this particular stripe of insanity? Or perhaps, the insanity is a facet of the regime of evil that in itself has a beginning but no end!
There's never an end to any kind of insanity in this insane, upside-down world.
I should think like in Vietnam it will come in the form of fairly well justified violence from the Afghanis.
Well this is just another way to shuffle the taxpayer's money to those 'friends' more deserving of it because it is much more expensive to 'pay' the private contractors than it is to use the military as it should be used in just wars or conflict of which there are none of those in process as of now.
And it will be the private contractors that will eventually replace the current police forces in this country.
Bear in mind that the use of contractors is also a way to get around the draft. Although it's "technically" illegal to use contractors for combat, there are a lot of military units that used to be used for logistical purpose that have now been replaced with private contractors.
What I find interesting is that none of these stats ever go into how many Americans are employed over there, not as privatized military, but straight laborers in the task of "rebuilding". Do an online search for Middle East jobs...it is stunning how many are available.
It seems to me that any time you see an increase in military, this also suggests an increase in reconstruction companies/workers who need that security.
How many Americans, both military AND non-military are there? How much does that number help buffer the unemployment rate here? I'm certain that number is at least 500,000...if Obama pulled out now, that would translate into an instant increase in unemployment, fueling recession fears.
Nothing is black and white, the whole thing is a house of cards, and it's Capitalism's insistence on perpetual growth that creates the whole damn mess.
You got it right. The military is first and foremost a jobs program. Trouble is, it only hires politically conservative, young people. Puts them through hell, though. Too bad the gov couldn't come up with jobs that actually benefited others and offered positions for all interested people, young and old, conservative or left, men and women.
"Trouble is, it only hires politically conservative, young people."
I'm sure that plenty of the soldiers were Dem. Party supporters. Most recruitment targets the poor and many of them are not Repub. Party supporters. Many are with the Dem. Party, which is ruled by neoliberals.
Obama's not a "conservative" as most Americans use the term. He's NEO-LIBERAL. Hitler, if I recall correctly, was socialist, or pretended to be; like Obama pretended to be "for change", the kind that's needed.
A friend of a friend is a plumber that went to Iraq. He was paid $1,500 a day to sit around the green zone. Occasionally he would climb into a chopper with a security team (mercenaries), fly to the reconstruction site (the u.s. blew up the facility), work from 30 minutes to an hour (longer makes them targets), then fly back to the green fort. Such a ruse. The companies make more per day on them than they do.
"The companies make more per day on them than they do."
Of course they do. All companies make more revenue than their employees do, including more than top-paid CEO's. But what first came to mind is banksters, how much more they make from playing with other people's money than the depositors get or are given from the investments and loans made with their money. I read a little while back that bankers or banks retain around 80% of interest or profits made from depositors' accounts, and depositors get what, 3%, 4%, or, if lucky, 5 to 6 percent?
But it doesn't really matter if mercenary employees of private "security", i.e., mercenary, firms get ripped off by their employers. They shouldn't be working for such cies to begin with, and definitely NOT in [any] U.S. wars.
What they do is seek profit and, in the process, they help our government being hijacked, for our Constitution and Bill of Rights to be flushed down sewers, and for the same to be done with the international laws, conventions and treaties that the U.S. Constitution specifically makes [supreme law of the land] in and for the USA, since the U.S. is a co-signer.
I have some humane heart for these mercenary employees, at least for those who "break silence" and testify against their employers, including about murders committed by their units in Iraq, f.e. But I won't worry about them being financially ripped off by their now former employer(s).
I don't disagree with your overall point - but - the 120,000 (or so) count of contractors who are there as of earlier this year does include "straight laborers" as you call them. The number of security contractors was only 5,000. Now both of these numbers have gone up, but security contractors are still in the 4-5% range of all contract positions. It's all in the article.
Also, you will notice they say "US Funded contractors". They are not all Americans. The skilled labor or clearance needed jobs are Americans. Many of the food service, sanitation, and labor workers are from Afghanistan or another third world country. Most of those guys make $1,000 a month tops and do the support work that it would take 2-3 US soldiers to do (rotation schedules and all).
I don't know the ratio of US to foreign national/third country nationals, but US personnel are less than 25% for sure.
Also in the article is that the numbers specified in it are only from what is officially known; leaving clearly inferred that there may actually be many more mercenary contractors than Jeremy Scahill could find statistics for. Maybe he didn't mean this about other contractors, but I think he certainly did for the mercenary ones; and they are the government corruptors and war-makers would want to keep as secret as possible.
Very good and important article.
And Americans need not look abroad to find their enemies. They're domestic.
Both of the following two articles provide important and sufficiently related information about March Foward!, an anti-war organisation of U.S. war veteran and active-duty soldiers who apparently are excellently opposed to the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, and the continuation of these wars. In the article at Uruknet, March Forward! is the topic of roughly the second half of the article, but the first part is also important. Dahr Jamail's article is wholly on March Forward! and quotes from its two co-founders. The article at Uruknet provides the ten demands that March Foward! is making, or is and has been since its founding.
"That deal the US made with the Kurds",
by TheCommonIlls.blogspot.com, Dec 16 2009
http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=61145
"Veterans Group Calls On Soldiers to Refuse Orders to Deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq"
by Dahr Jamail, Dec 14, 2009
http://www.truthout.org/1214091
From DemocracyNow this morning: "US Opens New Afghan Assault as Deployment Begins"
In Afghanistan, the US has launched a major combat operation in the Uzbeen Valley... On Thursday, the first Marine battalion deployed under the escalation left Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Battalion member Lance Corporal Joseph Jones was asked about his mission.
Lance Corporal Joseph Jones: “This is what we do: kick down doors, and we look for people and shoot at people. This is what we do. This is what I signed up to do. I don’t know about everyone else.”
Support our troops? I hope there's an IED with this jackass's name on it. He's just the kind of storm trooper I DON'T want to see coming home.
so your wishing death on another human being ?
Alright, I was tacky. I always know when it's time to log off--when I get so pissed off I write something out of pure anger. However, I can't help but wonder what this guy's life is going to become, since he talks like a natural born killer.
Over and out.
No need to apologize.
Frankly, the world would be a much better place without certain people. And many of those people reside in Washington.
He's a kid Eddie. He hasn't even been there yet. Don't you find it interesting that they go to a kid that hasn't even been there, that is more than likely scared to death and talking big for a quote? I do.
Its the same kind of talk people quote that they hear from the bar to warriors thast never got closer to combat than a typewriter.
Many of the famous anti-war types are the same kind of bar warrior. One example was a leader of the Vet anti-war...winter soldiers? I think....telling everyone about bombing civilians tec, turns out he flew mail to the carriers.
DemocracyNow has an agenda just as Army recruiters do. Bre sure and look behind their reasons. That kind of thing is not Journalism, its push polling.
Oh, stuff it, Henry. That kid is a nihilistic thug, like so many of the men who walk the earth (especially the US), and now he's got a gun in his hand. His nerve-endings and conscience have already been far too numbed for him to be "scared to death," as you say. I think Fast Eddie is right on the mark, hyperbole and all.
it has been my experience leading young men in to combat that bravado has much to do with what they say, and little to do with how they feel.
Clovis, you do not know him, and the reality of how 'we' (speaking for the US military in general) operate and talk to the media is not like that. You can call it what you will (propaganda or 'spin')but some one with that statement to say would not be allowed to speak to a reporter.
in reality there are people in the military and out of it that think and feel that way, Those sort of people worry me. I am saying that he is an exception to the rule, not the rule.
Support the troops? Sure. SEE the two articles I posted one or two posts before yours, FastEddie75, and you'll see how to support them and which ones are to be supported.
In terms of soldiers like Lance Cpl Joseph Jones, I'll support Afghans, including the Taliban, and would NOT want him (or anyone like him) returning to my neighbourhood, so won't wish for him to return to his neighbourhood in the U.S.; for we need to be humane towards the other people living in that neighborhood. Instead, if he returns to the U.S., then straight-jacket him, haul him away, and then lock him away in some insanity asylum somewhere ...; maybe on the moon. After all, once he'd be locked away in an insanity asylum, he might get out of his cell and break doors of other cells or rooms open and try to kill the people in them; and we shouldn't be inhumane to people who are insane, well, while I could see an exception being made in the case of this Lance Cpl and other murderers or murderer-wannabes like him.
There is an urban myth out there, so endlessly repeated and endorsed by the media, that veterans returning to the US from Vietnam were scorned or worse.
I was around then, an activist against that war. I don't remember vets ever being harassed or scorned at all except by the govt who denied them the services they required to recover from the effects of that horrific experience.
Truth is, as far as I recall, they are/were held up as heroic models of american maleness. The media and social institutions hold up warriors as the ultimate patriots, ensuring an uninterrupted stream of fresh young bodies/minds to exploit and squander.
I believe it is the peacemakers who have been right in every instance from Vietnam to Nicaragua to Iraq to Afghanistan. They have worked to end the senseless slaughter that accomplishes nothing beyond higher profits for corporations.
The real truth is that is has always been the voices calling for peace that have been scorned or worse. On every level. And they are the genuine heroes/heroines.
iowapinko
Well my friend, the urban myth you speak of was no myth. I was around then too and I'm here to tell you that it happened and happend a lot on the West coast. I am sick to death of the revisionist history about this and the denial by the "peace activists" from back then. They used to brag about it.
I don't recall troops back then being held up as a hero by anyone and I sure haven't noticed the media doing what you are talking about.
And yes, the anti-war movement helped, but if you believe it was you that ended the Viet Nam war you are dreaming. I don't find anything heroic about carrying a sign down a street or being "against" the war. Thats no more heroic than getting shot at and dealing with being scared to death. There simply aren't that many hero's around. I've seen a couple and I can assure you the typical grunt or the typical anti-war type don't qualify.
To disabuse you of another fallacy of thinking, if you think being in Combat disqualifies you from being anti-war or being against the war you are in, think again. I'll bet I met more anti-war types in fighting holes than you have in your life.
You won't ever find anyone more against war or going to war than a combat veteran. Period.
I don't mean to be uncivil but I am sick to death of postings that say it didn't happen and our memories are whacko. It most certainly did and I know a Sergeant Major that to this day would be delighted to have a conversation with the little coward that spat on him. He still hates them at 62.
Henry, you are always ready to defend the military on the these threads, and you waste no time hopping into action. But your defenses are mere rationalizations of one of the more perverse creations of the human character, the "soldier," which, if he was perhaps necessary at some prior, more primitive stage of human society, is an aggressive, deadly parasite in the current one. The sooner mankind can rid itself of this scourge, the better. Societies like the US and Israel, which falsely posit the "necessity" of the militaristic mindset, are the biggest threats to peace in the world today.
HENRY8
CLOVIS is right. please heed the advice of your fellow posters here..you are CLEARLY devoted to the country and that is a GREAT honor and anyone can rightly commend you for it.
but there are other ways to LOVE one's country, Henry8. it is to be willing to SEE the WRONGS that it does. and WAR MAKING and MILITARISM is one of these, or perhaps, even the greatest wrong that USA commits for the sake of NO OTHER than the MONEYED CLASSES who DON"T CARE ABOUT YOU or YOUR love for America and your fellow americans and people. but instead USE that love in order to whip up WARMAKING sentiments and through it "defending the honor" of the "soldiers" - EVEN IF that is used MERELY to do the wars these moneyed classes who INSTIGATE THEM for profit and theft - would NOT physically put themselves in danger for, and out of which results the enmity and resentment of people elsewhere who had NO QUARRELS with YOU or fellow ordinary americans.
the Soldiers, killing and dying, for Empire, are the physical manifestations, with all the killing and gore and ruin , of the
faceless or cowardly MONEYED CLASSES hiding behind "laws" and "order" and "society" and "patriotism" who are members of the Corporatocracy and rich families and influential profiteers and warmongers...
who are not even FIT to LICK the sole of the boots of the poor people who they send to KILL and DIE for their GREED and selfishness.
Agreed.
Henry8
-- I know that you love fellow americans..and have a deep love for the country. I DO too. even if I came from a different country. I LOVE the people, I have had many friends over the years, many that helped me, many that showed generosity..and many that were open-minded as well as some that also , perhaps best be said: just needed to be more aware of what the USA REALLY does outside the consciousness of americans.
nevertheless - soldiers who go to war abroad - are without exception - only and ALWAYS have been doing the WILL of the MONEYED CLASSES, no matter how you or anyone might wish to put it. they are BEING USED, whether they know it or agree to it, or not.
and THAT is not right, Henry8.
perhaps this is the main difference between yourself and some others here concerning the soldiers "going abroad".
the bottom line is - AMERICA SHOULDN"T be behaving like an Empire, which it is, because this is what all this is about. and Empire expansion beyond its own borders (which itself was an Imperial project BY FOREIGNERS: namely the europeans, over the indians) is the equivalent of stealing the lands and resources and lives of other people.
I know that you love america deeply -- but it is important, imo, that you reconcile the DIFFERENCE between that and America's IMPERIALISM..of which Soldiering which is NOT "for defense" but an openly AGGRESSIVE project.
just think...these soldiers, so many of them are from lower economic classes....and on top of having to earn so little for the sacrifice of themselves...because there are no jobs..they also have to LOSE the precious time with their loved ones?
for the sake of WHOM REALLY? it's not really for YOU, or ME, or any ordinary person who have no quarrels with afghans, or pakistanis, or iranians...and for all you know any of US have friends among them ...(one of my dearest friends has been a GORGEOUSLY beautiful and highly educated, worldly and artistic Persian woman who is so loving and devoted to her little child, some have been israelis, some russians, and all kinds of different nationalities and backgrounds) ...
it is for the PROFIT of the "MONEYED CLASS...who scheme, and plan, and instigate, and execute wars INDEPENDENT of the welfare of the common people" -- Claus von Clausewitz, Ludwig von Mises, General Smedley Butler - US marines, etc....
it makes me tear up every time I hear of another soldier dying or maimed, and also those people in central and middle east also suffering the same way..and there go more lives RUINED by the MONEYED CLASS and WARMONGERS who pretend to be the "protector" of everyone but actually are the CRIMINALS AGAINST everyone.
"ALL FOREIGN WARS are ALSO WARS AGAINST THE DOMESTIC POPULATION...they always come hand in hand". ...Ludwig von Mises.
"Our boys that came home from Viet Nam were treated terribly all right, but by the anti-war left, not the right wingers, thats a fact."
That's not a fact. That's largely a bullcrap urban legend that does not much hold water. Those on the left are largely able to see two sides of an argument and separate the troops from the illegal invasions and terrible policies, while the right wants absolutes. Money for combat, none for combat stress; money for death, but not for healthcare; money for murdering people abroad, but abortion is murder. Once those broken vets came home the right, like you, saw them as "weak" and wrote them off as part of the welfare state leeching off their precious tax money.
Your support of a bloated, criminally expensive, largely redundant military makes you part of the problem of America's failure. Calling broken soldiers weak of mind is rather perjorative as well; I prefer to think of those who cannot return to the horrors of war as less than fully brainwashed.
Sorry. I was there. Just as anti-war groups taunted LBJ, (How many kids did you kill today?) so were some veterans taunted. However, to make up for this abuse, later veterans were given first consideration with many job opportunities. That's how my son got the great job he has had since he left the service back in 1980. Of course, he is very good at what he does.