womenvets

The vote was close, but House lawmakers approved $106 billion for wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan by a close vote of 226 to 202, with a stipulation that the money cannot be used to close Guantanamo in the final months of this budget year. It is expected to be passed by the Senate before the August recess.How can these legislators OK another $106 billion for war when, domestically, Americans are not doing very well? Tent cities are springing up in bigger cities, and the middle class is being wiped out. Unemployment is past 10 percent and climbing. Who wants these wars to continue? Weren’t we supposed to be out of Iraq by this summer, and why are we not adding Pakistan to the fray – although we all knew it was too close for comfort, literally?On Friday Defense Secretary Robert Gates testified that more Afghan civilians are being killed due to operational human error, adding the deaths are not good for the good will of the Afghan people. Duh! Wonder why? Collateral damage, indeed. … Speaking of… thousands of civilians have also been killed due to the war in Iraq.Meanwhile, in neighboring Iran, protestors have been warned enough is enough of their complaints the recent election was rigged. Crowds were reportedly pumped up by Islamic clerics shouting, “Death to America.”I was proud (and frightened) for the hundreds of thousands of protestors last week taking to the streets to ask for a re-election between Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi and incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinijad, who was declared the victor with less than 40 percent of the votes cast.We all know how crazy Ahmadinijad is – with his insistence the Holocaust is a lie. But Moussavi isn’t the U.S. version of a democratic leader either. He’s considered moderate in the Islamic culture, and came through the ranks on the heels of the first uprising in 1979.Our troops – 20 percent of which are women (mothers, daughters, sisters, girlfriends), are on third and fourth tours of duty. I wonder how much thinner we can stretch them and their families.  Recently, the death toll of U.S. soldiers hit 5,000 in this latest Middle East snafu. And all the while, the military will not follow President Barack Obama’s lead to allow gay soldiers. Jeez, it is 2009, for God’s sake.  I doubt they will be a hindrance. (BTW, there is a film airing on PBS this weekend about the human toll the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell military policy has taken.) While I was in the U.S. Navy, there were gay people on my ship, in my school, at my duty station. No one made an issue out of it – but that was in the 1980s. It doesn’t look like we will be pulling out our combat soldiers any time soon. And there is more unrest to worry about in other areas of the world – N. Korea, Africa, etc. Talk about being stretched thin – Obama still has a lot on his plate, and health care reform seems to be his main priority right now. 

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/broadcast.html?edit_st=y

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D98U2DFO0&show_article=1&catnum=3

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