War's impact

The dog of slain Petty Officer Jon Tumilson refused to leave his side during the Navy SEAL’s funeral earlier this week in Rockford, Iowa. The heartbreaking photo taken by his cousin, Lisa Pembleton, shows Tumilson’s dog Hawkeye lying by the casket. 

Navy SEAL U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jon T. Tumilson was among the 30 American troops killed August 6 when Taliban insurgents downed their Chinook helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade. At his funeral in Iowa, his dog Hawkeye paid his last respects, walking up to the casket, lying down in front of it, and heaving a sigh.

Pembleton wrote on Facebook that Hawkeye was Tumilson’s loyal pet who wouldn't leave his master’s side during the funeral in Rockford, Iowa.

“I felt compelled to take one photo to share with family members that couldn't make it or couldn't see what I could from the aisle,” Pembleton wrote.

Tumilson's family and/or friends also posted this looping, time lapsed video of Hawkeye at the service...commencing application of kleenex tissues now...... 

Day-after Memorial Day

The price of war is much greater than we think.

Returning veterans are profoundly marked for life. All the flag-waving and hoo-hah cannot make up for the lack of adequate support for our veterans.

Read about the inadequacy of our response here.

Just how much money?

A friend handed me this brochure, based on President Obama's 2012 federal discretionary budget, sent to Congress in February 2011. Percentages are rounded.

Military, Department of Defense, War, Veterans Affairs, and Nuclear Weapons programs = 60%
Health and Human Services = 7%
Education = 6%
State Department = 5%
on down to
Transportation = 1%

Dwight D. Esienhower said: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

$715 Million for a wharf in Bremerton, WA

"Eight Trident subs are based at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. The subs carry 24 missiles. Each missile can carry eight warheads."

Eight x 24 x 8 = 1,539. Whoa. Each of those 1,539 nuclear warheads can be launched at a separate city, with a range just short of 5,000 miles.

The $715,000,000 wharf is for loading and unloading the missiles.

America's Ruling Class is Letting us Down.

"If the ruling class were as worried about the deficit as it claims to be, it would accept that the wealthiest people in society have a duty to pony up more for the very government whose police power and military protect them, their property and their wealth."

It doesn't take a genius to figure out how we've managed to bankrupt ourselves. Meddling comes at a price, in human suffering and added debt. We still are spending about what the rest of the world combined spends on the military.

For the rest of the editorial, click here.

Military Spending and Homelessness

The National Coalition for the Homeless tells us these sad facts:


The President’s Budget request for FY10 suggests giving the Department of Defense a budget of $533.7 billion. (Wait, it gets worse!). Another 130 billion is designated for the current actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The total is more like 708 billion, when you add in the Department of Energy spending which is Defense related.

Want to know how much they're going to spend on homelessness? This is for 2010.

$1.7 billion for homeless assistance grants.

The biggest expenditure for housing in the Federal budget goes to middle class home-owners, who get a tax break for the interest they pay on their homes. Billions of dollars are given away in this way. And yes, we would squawk if we had to give that up.

Woe to us. Judgement coming.

Who is winning this war?

It is pretty much "life as normal" in the United States. We're battling back from an economic downturn. And we are fighting a war, on two fronts.

How much does that even play into the daily lives of most people? I would say "Not at all." Unless you have a family member in the service, unless you've lost someone, you aren't paying much attention. Think about that. Your nation is at war, and you rarely have front page news about the war effort. And there is very little call to sacrifice. Because basically, despite all the rhetoric, WE DON'T CARE.

This morning on the radio I heard an amazing statistic. For each soldier deployed, it costs US taxpayers, borrowing from the Chinese, about $1.2 million dollars a year. For each.

The biggest bargain of course is the salary of the fighting man. The biggest expense is fuel costs. It is astronomical how expensive it is, to move war materials and troops around. Have you checked the mileage on an armored troop carrier lately? Didn't think so.

Osama bin Ladin's goal for this armed conflict was to bankrupt the United States. In all the yakking in Washington DC about cutting the budget, do you think anyone suggests that military waste is the reason we're in this mess? That unjustified and impossible-to-win military involvements are the ultimate crime against the poor. Who is winning this war? Osama now has a presence in Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan; despite all our fighting he still is present in Afghanistan. And Libya will also prove to be rich recruiting ground very soon.

Are you feeling any safer, now that we owe trillions to foreign investors?