DEFENSE/MILITARY POSITION PAPER, MEL PACKER, 2/25/10

Our nation has been engaged in endless war since 2001 and the only gains have gone to corporations that are making massive profits due to private contracts awarded to service the war machine.

The governments we support in these nations function in a corrupt, ineffective, and anti-democratic fashion while their friends and relatives use the wars to rip off their own and the US Treasury to fill their own pockets with cash.

Thousands of US soldiers have died in these failed attempts to impose our version of democracy abroad. Scattered across our nation are returned veterans by the tens of thousands who are physically and psychologically maimed by this failed policy of unending wars.

In Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of civilians have died as a result of these wars, and their governments are increasingly isolated, weak, and corrupt but kept in power by our military.

To put it bluntly, our foreign policy is making enemies faster than we could kill them.

Thanks to this reckless policy of enduring wars and increasing military budgets, our nation, despite the claims of Wall Street and our elected officials, approaches bankruptcy.

Our military and defense budget is now about 41% of the total world expenditures and is a huge drain on our national budget while China only accounts for about 6% and just announced a reduction in spending. Ask yourself, what has this gained us in the world of nations?

You know the answer and that’s why we must end these wars now, bring our troops home, and use some of the tax dollars now being wasted to restore social services for the unemployed and underemployed and provide much needed aid to the veterans who are also victims of these failed policies.