Everyone seems to be applauding McCain now for being right on the surge, and conveniently forgetting the catastrophe that is the war itself. Over 4,100 confirmed U.S. deaths, well in excess of $500 billion already spent, and spending more at a rate of $341 million per day, and we are still there with as many soldiers as ever.

All so McCain and Bush can claim victory. What have we won? Even the war proponents have had to admit Iraq had no WMD, Al Qaeda was not in Iraq prior to the war, and Iraq posed no danger to the U.S.

Seemingly the only thing we have to show for all these lives lost and money wasted was getting rid of a horrible dictator. A laudable goal, I suppose, but there are many just as bad or worse around the world that we do nothing about, and there are no guarantees of what will happen in Iraq if we ever leave.

Meanwhile, our own economy is on the skids, with people losing homes left and right, 47 million without healthcare, the government having to bail out large lenders, insurers, and banks to prevent the average citizen from losing everything they have worked for. 

Don’t forget either, we don’t actually have this money, we borrow it by issuing bonds which are primarily bought by those that do have money, namely China and Middle Eastern countries, and then we pay interest to them on that debt and pass the burden on to our next generation. Don’t you think that money could have been better spent on our own country and those soldiers’ lives spared? At the very least it should have been directed at going after the actual terrorists instead of giving them a new place to establish and practice their atrocities.

Obama was right from the beginning that this was a bad war that took our eye off of the real dangers we face; don’t let the surge victory fool you.

Jim Anderson
Cumming