Here is my question:
How does ANYONE still believe these “wars” are in the interest of protecting America?
I mean really? Is it not completely clear?
OH, and to the “anti-war” left who was protesting with me on the streets in 2007 – where are you now?
Has there really been a GOP State Committeeman protesting for peace BY HIMSELF at Grand and Arsenal in downtown StL on Saturdays for 3 weeks?
I mean, really?
Really.
If you cannot see that the corporate elite are using the war to line their pockets and oppress the world through their international corporate police state.
THE LEFT RIGHT PARADIGM IS ENSLAVING YOU, SHEEP.
(sorry this issue really has me upset tonight)
_______________________________
Stunning Statistics About the War Every American Should Know
by Jeremy Scahill, December 19, 2009
Email This | Print This | Share This | Comment | Antiwar Forum
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.
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."
via Stunning Statistics About the War Every American Should Know by Jeremy Scahill — Antiwar.com.
If you are interested in joining our mailing list, please submit your email below. 
I discovered your homepage by coincidence.
Very interesting posts and well written.
I will put your site on my blogroll.