As of today, it has been six years since the United States invaded Iraq.  In his latest article, Laurence Vance reminds us of some uncomfortable facts that many Americans would rather just brush under the rug and be done with.  If only it were that simple.

Vance points out that the war should have been an issue in this last years presidential election, but really wasn’t.  And how “many Democrats only opposed the war because it was a Republican war… And now that Obama is president, no one from either party seems to mind that he wants to send 17,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.” 

Some statistics Vance noted in his article include: 

The financial cost of the war:  What was supposed to have been $50 billion turned into almost a trillion dollars, with 12 billion being spent fighting the war EACH MONTH last year.  And the cost of deploying one soldier to Iraq a year: $390,000.

The Iraqi death count:  The latest estimate was around 1 million, not counting the additional millions of Iraqis who are wounded, disabled, displaced, homeless, refugees, widows, or orphans.

Destruction to the lives of American soldiers & families:  “Many thousands of U.S. soldiers have been severely wounded. Hundreds of these have had limbs amputated. Untold numbers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.”

American soldier death count:  2,317 by the third year.  3,218 by the forth.  3,992 by the fifth.  And now up to 4,259.  And, Vance points out that “although the total number of American deaths per year is falling, there are two ways in which American deaths are rising: military suicides and the war Afghanistan.  There were more American soldiers who killed themselves in January of this year than died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military suicides are not only up for the fourth year in a row, they are at the highest level they have ever been.”  And that ”the number of American soldiers killed in Afghanistan is now up to 666.”

Vance concludes with a quote William Lloyd Garrison once said: “The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead.”

Recently the Associated Press published an informative bit on Yahoo related to all that stimulating talk that’s been going on in Washington.  It’s titled, “How the economic stimulus plan could affect you”, and it breaks down (at least a portion of) what the new stimulus is intended to do, in simple-to-understand sections, including: Taxes, Health Insurance, Infrastructure, Energy, Schools, Environment, Police, Higher Education and The Poor. 

Scanning through these various sections, one begins to successfully envision Mr. Obama’s image of ”the wealth” being spread around (and around).  Problem is, in reality, it’s debt, not wealth that’s being so generously spread. Debt that according to the AP, “will affect us all directly for years, as well as our children and possibly grandchildren, in higher taxes and probably reduced government services”; which is ironic considering that pretty much every last bit of rubbish contained in the package is meant to inflate an already exorbitant amount of socialized government programs.  Shouldn’t this mean MORE government services?  I’m confused.  Perhaps I need to read through each section once more; a bit more carefully.

Taxes (or rewarding the spenders, “the green” and those already on the government dole):  First-time home buyers will be eligible for an $8000 tax credit, while those who buy new cars won’t have to pay sales tax.  Homeowners who add energy-efficient windows, furnaces and air conditioners can get a tax credit to cover 30 percent of the costs, up to a total of $1,500.  And, my personal favorite, those who ALREADY receive unemployment won’t  pay any federal income taxes on the first $2,400 they receive.  That’s a relief.

Health insurance (namely COBRA and Medicaid):  The government will pick up 65% of the tab  for those unemployed who are on COBRA insurance (for the first 9 months).  Additionally, the plan offers $87 billion to help states administer Medicaid, which “could slow or reverse some of the steps states have taken to cut the program”, according to the AP.

Infrastructure:  Amazingly, while it continues to destroy and rebuild the bridges of countries other than our own, the government intends to spend your money “repaving highways”, replacing the pipes of “century-old waterlines” and reinforcing aging bridges “with fresh steel and concrete”, and all of it here at home!  

Of course, the Associated Press has to be a downer by proclaiming that this $90 billion expense ”is a mere down payment on what’s needed to repair and improve the country’s physical backbone.  And not all economists agree it’s an effective way to add jobs in the long term, or stimulate the economy.”  Come on!

Well, the list goes on and so could I, but in the interest of time (and my sanity) let me conclude with these last few especially exciting points.  Firstly, Mother Nature will indeed be grateful for the more than $42 billion in energy and another $9.2 billion reserved especially for environmental projects.  And so will those working to “keep the peace”, for their cut of more than $3.7 billion. 

Schools (K-12) will get a $54 billion slice of the pie, with another $25 billion going to No Child Left Behind and other “special education programs”.  Head Start and Early Head Start get a mere $4 Billion.  And altogether, the package spends an estimated $32 billion on higher education.

“Poor people” who (ALREADY) get food stamps — 30 million and growing — will get more.  And people drawing unemployment checks — nearly 5 million and growing — would get an extra $25.

Did I leave anyone out?  Probably not.  Those who pay taxes are included as contributers and those who don’t as benefactors, so we’re pretty much all covered in one way or another.

I suppose, as a side note, I could mention the one section I kind of skipped over: The National Debt. Quoth the AP:

“One thing about the president’s $790 billion stimulus package is certain: It will jack up the federal debt.   Whether or not it succeeds in producing jobs and taming the recession, tomorrow’s taxpayers will end up footing the bill.  The national debt — the sum of all annual budget deficits — stands at $10.7 trillion. Or about $36,000 for every man, woman and child in the U.S.”

But think of the roads people!  And the trees and the poor!  Am I right?

Karen De Coster on Life as a Trained Monkey:

There are plenty of (supposedly) “smart” people who can be trained, like a monkey, to cram for an exam (or exams); get a college degree; remember procedures related to an occupation; take steps to complete a task, etc., etc. It is the use of critical thinking that demonstrates the difference between being smart and possessing intelligence (intellectual ability).

As a Certified Public Accountant working for many years in public and corporate accounting, with lots of colleagues who are endowed with CPAs, MBAs, etc., I am not hesitant to say that there are many very well-trained monkeys in the workplace, but very few critical thinkers

My assessment is drawn from my many years in corporate America, dealing with extraordinarily bright people, competent people, and mostly, those people whom I refer to as the “daily transactional types”—the ones who need to be trained what tasks to do on what days, and they will do it, but don’t dare ask them to think, and don’t expect them to assess or analyze anything that falls outside of their neatly-designed, one-dimensional box.

For many people, their job is their life because it is something they are “trained” to do. It’s all they have outside of kids, a lawn to cut, and golf on Sundays.  For me, my formal education garnered me an established career—a satisfactory and oftentimes challenging occupation that both feeds and funds my passions. If I knew little about the world outside of my job, the one-dimensional life would crush me with boredom and leave me with the life of a trained monkey.