Reply #7: please help keep this poll kicked ... thanks ... and read this !!! [View All]

[welshTerrier2]

and consider this ...

some have justified voting for the additional $81.4 billion on the basis that it will go to "support the troops" ... let's say there are roughly 150,000 troops in Iraq ...

if we gave every single troop $1000 to buy gear, that would total only $150 million (that's million not billion) ... if we gave every single troop $10,000 to buy protective gear, that totals $1.5 billion out of an $81.4 billion budget request ... if we gave every single troop $100,000 to buy protective gear, that would total $15 billion out of the $81.4 billion ...

and let's be real ... the troops are NOT going to be given that kind of money by the bush White House ... and that still doesn't come anywhere close to spending the $81.4 billion ...

the reality is that spending money "to protect the troops" is a totally specious argument ... the Pentagon budget is more than $400 billion ... isn't that money supposed to be used to "protect the troops" and buy them the necessary protective gear? ... that's a big $400 billion budget the first year of the Iraq war and another $400 billion in the second year and now another $400 billion as we begin the third year and that does NOT INCLUDE the additional $200 billion supplemental funding we've already spent on Iraq ...

add up 3 years at $400 billion per year plus an additional $200 billion ... that makes $1.4 TRILLION (that's a whole lot of zeros) available to buy a bit of protective gear for the troops in Iraq ... and now they want more money ????

anyone who votes additional funds for Iraq and exploits the needs of the troops as a justification can go to hell ...