By Frosty Wooldridge
Every time I see a bumper sticker reading, “Support Our Troops”, I want to puke. After 18 years fighting two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, what do we have to show for it? Answer: nothing but human misery!
I remember when I slogged through basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, 1968, E-8-2, I figured I was a walking dead man. My buddies wrote me from Nam with letters that said, “The Military Industrial Complex” that Ike talked about makes those CEO’s tons of money and gets us killed. We’re not trying to win this war, just prolonging it. Westmoreland is full of sh*t.”
In Iraq and Afghanistan, we’ve wasted $6,000,000,000,000.00 (trillion) on ‘forever wars’ that accomplished nothing but death and destruction of people and countries. Presently, we spend over $4,000,000,000.00 (billion) monthly. Note that we carry a $22 trillion national debt.
The MIC tells the press that the insurgents will resurge if we vacate the area. But in fact, the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites have fought each other for centuries. Once we leave, they will go after each other as usual. Even Bin Laden told us in the 90’s to leave Muslim lands. The MIC didn’t listen. They caused 9/11. You piss off a Muslim, they will get back to you. If you look at all Islamic countries, war remains a way of life over the centuries.
How about more than 6,000 combat deaths for our young men and women since 2001? How about $6,000,000,000,000.00 (trillion) wasted on killing over 500,000 people in those two countries according to Newsweek Magazine (online)? How about 20 suicides 24/7 throughout the year? How about 60,000 suicides by our military veterans and active duty personnel in the last 10 years?
“The new data was made available in the VA’s National Suicide Data Report, which found that, in 2016, 6,079 veterans ended their own lives compared to 6,281 in 2015. However, the suicide rate for veterans between the ages of 18 and 34 increased from 40.4 deaths per 100,000 veterans in 2015 to 45 in 2016, four times higher than that of other age groups. Notably, veterans below the age of 35 were the only age group that saw an increase in suicides from 2015 to 2016. The suicide rate was even greater for young female veterans.
“The report also noted that veterans accounted for 14 percent of all suicides in the U.S. in 2016, even though veterans account for only 8 percent of the national population, with more than 6,000 veterans committing suicide every year for the past decade. On a related note, the suicide rate in the U.S. has increased nationwide in recent years, rising nearly 30 percent since 1999.” (Source: VA Report on Veteran Suicides)
We killed Bin Laden in 2011. We should have left the area the next week. Instead, we’re still there getting our kids killed. The media tells us that we’re protecting America. B*ll Sh*t!
“The new data was made available in the VA’s National Suicide Data Report, which found that, in 2016, 6,079 veterans ended their own lives compared to 6,281 in 2015. However, the suicide rate for veterans between the ages of 18 and 34 increased from 40.4 deaths per 100,000 veterans in 2015 to 45 in 2016. Notably, veterans below the age of 35 were the only age group that saw an increase in suicides from 2015 to 2016. The suicide rate was even greater for young female veterans.
“The report also noted that veterans accounted for 14 percent of all suicides in the U.S. in 2016, even though veterans account for only 8 percent of the national population, with more than 6,000 veterans committing suicide every year for the past decade. On a related note, the suicide rate in the U.S. has increased nationwide in recent years, rising nearly 30 percent since 1999.” (Source: VA Report.)
Why are we doing this to our youth? What possible reason could make us war against two third-world countries for 18 years? Who is responsible? When will those wars stop? Why do our representatives keep funding those wars?
The MIC created the lottery to stop the demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Once half the kids knew they were safe, the unlucky few got drafted and killed in Vietnam until 1975.
Today, the MIC dreams up wars for future generations. They created Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq, Syria and more to come. Since it’s an all-volunteer army, less than 1 percent of our youth serve, and nobody cares.
What about tens of thousands of cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome? What about thousands of kids coming back with plastic legs and steel-pincer arms and hands? What about the drug addiction, broken families, and broken children.
One Army sergeant from Fort Carson, Colorado, south of me, died in Iraq after his 11th deployment in 14 years. He left behind three kids and a wife, mostly not having seen them for most of their lives. And, now he’ll never see them. That’s abuse of our finest and their families.
Who keeps those wars going? The MIC enjoys a distinct group of men who make the meals, build the war planes, clothing, weapons, munitions, ships and thousands of war assistance materials.
As it stands today, we support military 800 bases in over 70 countries around the world. It costs us countless trillions of dollars. Over 450,000 military personnel man those bases. What an incredible waste of money, manpower and greed!
Meanwhile, our inner cities rot with poverty. Chicago is a killing zone 24/7. Schools suffer overwhelming undocumented youth using up our resources and gaining free meals while our youth cannot be educated with another 100 languages being spoken in their school systems. (In my city of Denver, 173 different languages in Denver Public Schools.) And still, Congress floods us with another 100,000 legal immigrants every 30 days. Our youth overdose to the tune of 13 every hour, 24/7. We’ve got an opioid death crisis burgeoning across the country. We’ve got racial unrest every day of the year, but we continue to import more foreigners from incompatible cultures to create even more cultural and racial unrest in the future.
“Immigration is a form of war in which the violence is delayed.” ~ Martin Van Crevald
Therefore, I ask the question: do you want to see another 18 years of foreign wars that kill off another 6,000 troops that you support, and another 60,000 veteran suicides? Do you think we’ve accomplished anything of merit? Do you think it will change the Middle East into a peaceful region? Do you think Muslims like us over there in their lands with our “Satanist” culture?
If we don’t vacate, and now, we could see another 6,000 parents, and another 60,000 other parents get a call that their child died on the battle field or in the park where he or she took their own lives.
Do we want that for any U.S. military personnel in the future?
Apparently, we do because we’ve done nothing to stop it in 18 years, and as long as the people from the Military Industrial Complex have their way, expect another 18 years of wars with commensurate consequences.
— Frosty Wooldridge
Golden, CO
Population-Immigration-Environmental specialist: speaker at colleges, civic clubs, high schools and conferences
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Six continent world bicycle traveler
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Adventure book: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World
Frosty Wooldridge, six continent world bicycle traveler, Astoria, Oregon to Bar Harbor, Maine, 4,100 miles, 13 states, Canada, summer 2017, 100,000 feet of climbing:
