If you haven’t read the article in today’s New York Times titled “High Costs Weigh on Troop Debate for Afghan War,” please do so. If all the other reasons for not dramatically expanding our military effort in that land of beaten down invaders has not yet convinced you that a major buildup there would be insane, this one should do the trick.
The article points out that even a modest buildup from present levels would wipe out savings from our Iraq withdrawal. A build up of 30,000 or 40,000 troops would cost between $30 billion and $54 billion a year more than our present expenditures there.
This article tells it better than I can here. It also doesn’t froth the way I do in the face of demands to fight another needless never ending war promoted by what Dwight Eisenhower first characterized in the 1950s as the military-industrial complex, and which today might better be labeled the military-industrial-contractor-talk radio-congressional complex.
The legacy of two failed administrations, Johnson’s and Bush II’s, was destroyed by stupid military adventures in places we had no business fighting for prolonged periods. Let us pray the Obama legacy doesn’t disappear down the same deep, dark rabbit hole.