I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Tag: war in Iraq

  • Answer: 300 Million Dollars a Day (from the archives)

    Answer: 300 Million Dollars a Day (from the archives)


    On October 27, 2011 I published the following post. I’m no foreign policy expert or even wonk, but I am devastated by the disastrous unraveling of order – the chaos that is Afghanistan as the United States leaves a country it first sent troops to in October, 2001.

    Answer: 300 Million Dollars a Day

    Question:  How much does the United States spend on the War in Afghanistan?

    Sigh.   If only I’d been watching Jeopardy instead of 60 Minutes last night.   If only The Good Wife hadn’t moved to Sunday nights for the new fall season in 2011.   If only the football game on CBS had ended on time so I wouldn’t have gotten started watching 60 Minutes because I wanted to know when The Good Wife would actually be coming on later.   If only I’d remembered my New Year’s Resolution to avoid TV news shows at all costs.  

    But no, I wasn’t watching Jeopardy.  Instead,  I got hooked on a segment of the  60 Minutes  Sunday evening news program commemorating the anniversary of the ten-year War in Afghanistan and an interview with the two men responsible for its, ahem, conclusion.   As if. 

    So the interview goes by swimmingly with numbers rolling off the tongues of men who look stern and tired and unhappy to be where they are, including the interviewer.   Number of American lives lost so far?   1,800.   One thousand eight hundred men and women no longer with us or their families and friends.   1,800.   Gone.  Immense, immeasurable, staggering loss.

    Number of dollars spent so far?   Half a trillion.   I don’t even know how many zeroes to put in half a trillion.   I’ll call it a gazillion and I’ll break it down into smaller numbers so we can all relate to it.   Let’s see.   That would be about two billion dollars a week or 300 million dollars a day.   Oh, okay.   That’s easier to understand.   If we put this in Powerball lottery terms, we’re spending 20 Powerball lotteries of 15 million dollars each on a daily basis in a country that hates us on a war that will never be over and wonder why we have an uncontrollable federal deficit.   Seriously.   As my daddy used to say, the inmates are running the asylum.

    Oh, and the two men responsible for bringing this war to a successful conclusion?    The same team that helped to end the insurgency in Iraq.   I kid you not.

    I will not watch TV news shows.   I will not watch TV news shows.   I will not watch TV news shows.   Maybe if I don’t watch them, the news will vanish Without a Trace, which is what I prefer to watch along with The Good Wife.

    *********************

    IMG_20210816_093722329

    Screen shot today of US stats – not including the costs by NATO allies, most especially Germany and the UK, Canadian involvement until 2013, and the immeasurable loss of lives and property by the civilian population of Afghanistan in the past 20 years.

    And guess what? We made a pact with the Devil who has regained control of a country he never left…and never will.

    I remember another 20 year war from 1955 – 1975 in a faraway place known as Vietnam. I know, I know. No comparison, says Secretary of State Blinken. But I vaguely remember helicopters landing and taking off from rooftops to rescue people then like the images I saw today in Kabul. God help the women and children of Afghanistan.

    I will not watch TV news shows. I will not watch TV news shows. I will not watch TV news shows. Somebody stop me.

    *********************

    Stay safe, stay sane, get vaccinated please and stay tuned.

  • Big Money, Vanna


    Who let the money out of the bag?   Oh, you mean who let the cat out of the bag.   No, I mean who let the money out of the big ol’ US Guvmint Bag?   Ah, how much money are we talkin’ bout, Willis?   Gobs and gobs?

    Oh, yeah.   We’re talkin’ gobs and gobs and gazillions of gobs.   We’re talkin’ so much we don’t even know how many zeroes to put after it.   As a financial person in a former life, I should never read articles about money.   As a social justice activist and relative pacifist, I should rarely read articles about wars or health care.   And I should never ever EVER read an article that contains extensive information about government spending in the past fifty years.   Step away from the computer, O Person Who Reads With Forked Mind.

    For example, today I read that the Wall Street Bailout cost us $4.76 trillion dollars of which $1.54 trillion is floating around loose somewhere with no repayment in sight.   Zing went the strings of my wallet – and yours, too.  Coincidentally, or as luck would have it,  two nights ago I watched the movie Too Big to Fail and I advise against watching it unless you have a strong stomach.   The plot traces the origins of the economic disaster that began in 2008 and continues to plague our country today.   Snow White has two new Wall Street Dwarfs named Greedy and Thiefy and they run the Big Money, Vanna.

    Can I buy a vowel?   Indeed, and you can buy a couple of wars while you’re at it.   The smartest vowel to buy is an “A’ which is found in the words IrAq and AfghAnistAn.   Wow –  that’s cost you $122 billion dollars per year since 2001 and by the way we haven’t stopped spending and we didn’t count people cost, either.   Ouch…that A was expensive.

    Can I buy a Happy Vowel now because the “A” brought a frown to the unflappable Pat Sajak and the entire Audience, too.    Let’s see.  Yes, you may buy an “I” for the eIsenhower Interstate hIghway system that was built from 1956 to 1991 for  $484 billion and counting.   The Good News is  this vowel has generated $6 in revenue for every $1 in cost so that should make you happy as you drive merrily along your favorite Interstate Highway.  Yippee – this game is fun.   Big wheels keep on rollin’ and spinnin’, too.

    Okay.   One last spin of your big ol’ US Guvmint Bag Wheel…oops!      BANKRUPT.

    Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

  • Answer: 300 Million Dollars A Day


    Question:  How much does the United States spend on the War in Afghanistan?

    Sigh.   If only I’d been watching Jeopardy instead of 60 Minutes last night.   If only The Good Wife hadn’t moved to Sunday nights for the new fall season in 2011.   If only the football game on CBS had ended on time so I wouldn’t have gotten started watching 60 Minutes because I wanted to know when The Good Wife would actually be coming on later.   If only I’d remembered my New Year’s Resolution to avoid TV news shows at all costs.  

    But no, I wasn’t watching Jeopardy.  Instead,  I got hooked on a segment of the  60 Minutes  Sunday evening news program commemorating the anniversary of the ten-year War in Afghanistan and an interview with the two men responsible for its, ahem, conclusion.   As if. 

    So the interview goes by swimmingly with numbers rolling off the tongues of men who look stern and tired and unhappy to be where they are, including the interviewer.   Number of American lives lost so far?   1,800.   One thousand eight hundred men and women no longer with us or their families and friends.   1,800.   Gone.  Immense, immeasurable, staggering loss.

    Number of dollars spent so far?   Half a trillion.   I don’t even know how many zeroes to put in half a trillion.   I’ll call it a gazillion and I’ll break it down into smaller numbers so we can all relate to it.   Let’s see.   That would be about two billion dollars a week or 300 million dollars a day.   Oh, okay.   That’s easier to understand.   If we put this in Powerball lottery terms, we’re spending 20 Powerball lotteries of 15 million dollars each on a daily basis in a country that hates us on a war that will never be over and wonder why we have an uncontrollable federal deficit.   Seriously.   As my daddy used to say, the inmates are running the asylum.

    Oh, and the two men responsible for bringing this war to a successful conclusion?    The same team that helped to end the insurgency in Iraq.   I kid you not.

    I will not watch TV news shows.   I will not watch TV news shows.   I will not watch TV news shows.   Maybe if I don’t watch them, the news will vanish Without a Trace, which is what I prefer to watch along with The Good Wife.