Your
Choice: Thirteen-Billion-Dollar Aircraft Carrier vs.
Cure for Cancer
What if we had a real democracy?
By Joe Clifford
January 21, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
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The Pentagon is about ready to pay
the bill for one, new, still unfinished aircraft
carrier, which so far has cost 13 billion dollars,
but is mired with cost overruns and dysfunctional
systems, so the daily cost continues to increase. At
the same time the US government has set aside a mere
4 billion for cancer research. One uncompleted
13-billion-dollar aircraft carrier vs. 4 billion for
finding a cure for cancer. Do you want the aircraft
carrier or the cure for cancer? This spending issue
raises many questions: What does a warped spending
priority say about our country? How many Americans
have been killed by “terrorists” vs. how many
Americans have died from cancer? What kind of a
country puts war and aircraft carriers before a cure
for cancer? What has your Congressional delegation
said about this? What do readers say about this? One
aircraft carrier vs. a cure for cancer; what would
you choose?
All the presidential contenders cheer the power of
the US military, while constantly calling for even
more military spending. Many are phobic about
Muslims, and Islamophobia is the cry of leading
politicians, but no one mentions that we, the US,
has dropped over 23,000 bombs on Muslim nations this
year, and have invaded or bombed 14 Muslim nations,
yet it is “we” who fear “them”, and insist “they”
want to harm “us”. Fear always breeds loss of
reasoning and obscures facts. We have killed over
one million Muslims in Iraq. Last month Physicians
for Social Responsibility released a study,
indicating the death toll of Muslims in our war on
terror may well be between 1.3 and 2 million deaths,
and some studies indicate Muslim deaths by the US
since 9/11 may be as high as 4 million. Yet in
defiance of facts, some still fear monger and argue,
“they” are trying to kill “us”. This historical
bloodletting by the US has only exacerbated the
situation. According to former General Stanley
McChrystal, “for every civilian you kill, you create
10 new fighters”, yet we plod along doing the same
thing over and over again, insuring a vicious cycle
of endless war. We have a large segment of our
population that has never experienced peace, and has
been raised witnessing constant wars. War has become
acceptable to many Americans.
When a nation turns itself into a military state and
has a military empire of 900 bases around the world,
and spends 610 billion on the military every year,
something has to give. What gives? In your state it
is bridges, roads, infrastructure, schools, aid to
the needy, and health care, all of which have been
cut due to the lack of available money, as all money
goes to our top priority, the military. It has not
occurred to citizens, that feeding a growing
military monster is at the expense of failing
infrastructure, failing schools, failing health
care, failing everyone, except for the Lockheed
Martins of the world, who sold $45 billion worth of
weapons last year. Cancer would be wiped out if the
National Cancer Institute were given just a fraction
of the military budget, but that is not our national
priority. War and the greatest military the world
has ever seen, is our priority. Curing the sick and
saving lives is not.
Because of a failed medical care system, the largest
cause of bankruptcy in the US is medical bills,
while all other civilized nations have national
health care which is far less expensive than ours.
Many citizens have consumed the Kool-Aid and naively
think we have great health care, but all studies by
the World Health Organization indicate we not only
have the most expensive health care in the civilized
world, but among the poorest in quality. We pay the
most and get the worst, but the good news is we have
the strongest military in the world, and our
military spending almost surpasses what the entire
world put together spends on military budgets.
What do readers think about such a misplaced
priority? More importantly what do the leaders of
your state think of the spending priority. Have
state leaders complained of having no money for
crumbling infrastructure because of excessive
military spending? Your Congressional delegation
presided over this mess and is responsible for
funding this misplaced priority, but have you ever
heard them explain why the military is more
important than school, curing cancer, a good health
care system? Have they ever tried to explain or
justify their votes on warped spending priorities,
where all is sacrificed for the sake of the military
budget? Of course not; they never address anything
of substance. Fluff is their game, but we allow them
to smother us with fluff, while depriving us of
infrastructure, health care, schools. Real leaders
would be fighting to save us from the devastation of
cancer. President Obama in his recent State of the
Union address boasted of our great military power,
and got the biggest round of applause of the night.
Echoes of Sparta, the once great Greek military
state, who valued war above all.
Joe Clifford is a frequent contributor who lives in
Rhode Island. |
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