According to a press release by the Associated Press tonight, Officials: Obama Settled on Afghan Plan, the fix is in. The President has apparently decided to send more troops into Afghanistan.
The late edition of today’s Washington Post indicates that (1) the President will probably tell us next week that he is going to increase troop strength in Afghanistan greatly and explain to us the reasons for that and (2) top Democrats will not support the increase without a special "war" tax being levied. In the high unemployment atmosphere that we are now within, that would be political suicide and these Democrats know that. This is gamesmanship.
The tax article, Pelosi: Democrats facing voter ‘unrest’ over war spending, troop increase, shows how seriously top Democrats oppose a troop increase we cannot afford.
In a related article the Fed today is claiming that unemployment will be in the very high range for years to come.
The story, Fed forecast suggests high jobless rate for years to come, is an eye opener. Wars cannot be paid for when almost one fifth of the working population is presently out of work.
As far as I am concerned, that is good news. Whatever money we have needs to be spent on creating jobs in reconstructing our social and physical infrastructures.
The new government just elected in Japan has revealed officially that for generations the Japanese government has allowed the U.S. to bring nuclear weapons into Japan when the military transits that territory. The U.S. government is not pleased with the admission. The story, Japan to reveal details of decades-old secret pact with U.S., only solidifies what was released years ago in a declassification event.
A key official in the Obama Administrations’ Guantanamo Detention Center closing team has resigned. The story, Key official in Guantanamo closure plan resigns, is here. He lists personal reasons for leaving. That is pretty much the standard reason given in this town when things like this happen.
Get ready to see a fight in Congress over funding for war escalation, Democrats in powerful positions there do not want it and Republicans are not cohesive enough at this point to force the issue. This is going to be a very interesting couple of months in Congress.
Get informed and stay informed. It is your civic duty as a veteran and a citizen to help govern this country based on informed opinions.
CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)
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