Trillions for perpetual war…not 2 cents for infrastructure

The two cents for infrastructure is hyperbole. We may get upwards of a trillion dollars to peck away at our woefully inadequate infrastructure over the next decade.

But the trillions for perpetual war is dead on. The Congressional Budget Office reports that at current levels we’ll spend $7.3 trillion over that same decade. It’s concerned enough about this gargantuan windfall to the weapons makers and military suppliers that it recommends lopping a cool trillion off this gargantuan boondoggle to endless war.

It’s not just pulling that trillion out of thin air. The specifics include a cross the board 20% reduction in all armed services, cancelling unneeded, wildly expensive weapons programs like a new generation of ground based ICBM’s and the proposed B-21 bomber.

All Republicans and a handful of Democrats in Congress are agonizing about $3.5 trillion over the next 10 years for drastically needed infrastructure. Even $3.5 trillion may not be enough to prevent the vaunted American economy from becoming an also ran. But mention national defense, which more accurately is national offense, maintaining military interventions all over the Middle East and Africa, and they green light spending trillions without a thought or a care.

To paraphrase a common meme, ‘Perpetual war talks…and infrastructure walks."

Uncle Sam to starving Syrians: ‘No food for you’

Tomorrow, October 15, will mark 10 years, 7 months for Syria’s civil war. That would be like the U.S. Civil War still pitting brother against brother on November 12, 1871.

It’s among the worst civil wars in my 77 years. Over a half million dead, 7 million refugees, 7 million displaced within Syria.

Right from the get-go, America was rooting for and assisting the insurgents to oust authoritarian Syrian president Basher Assad. He was a buddy of our bête noir, Iran, a country we’ve been seeking regime change for decades. In American diplomacy that is grounds for regime change.

Sanctions, bombings and massive aid to insurgents, many of whom aligned with anti-U.S. terrorists, have failed to oust Assad for 11 years now.

In spite of failure, we keep on keeping on. 11 years is nothing compared to our 62 years of failed efforts to oust the commies running Cuba.

But we should all feel revulsion our government has contributed greatly to the suffering and death of millions of innocent Syrians. From Obama to Trump to Biden, America’s deadly cruelty continues seamlessly.

This week U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken reiterated the U.S. will continue to oppose Syria’s reconstruction and “won’t lift a single sanction unless there is regime change in Syria.” On top of sanctions, the U.S. maintains 900 troops to illegally keep Syria’s oil fields from their rightful Syrian owners. America’s economic warfare is worsening Syria food shortages placing over 12 million Syrians at risk of starvation.

In a stupendous bit of chutzpah, America claims it’s the gatekeeper of the ‘rules based world order.’ We may no longer be bombing Syria, but our rules based world order is killing Syrians quietly in the silence of their homes. That concept of a rules based world order is simple depravity.