Priorities Revisited

We can't get a single fucking legislative act through Congress without getting the vapors about how it will be paid for, but endless war funding never faces the same scrutiny or debate:

Washington (CNN) -- The House of Representatives on Tuesday gave final approval to a nearly $59 billion emergency spending bill, the bulk of which would go toward the U.S. troop buildup in Afghanistan.

Specifically, the bill includes almost $33 billion for Afghanistan, along with over $5 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, almost $3 billion for Haiti relief programs and $68 million for the oil disaster response in the Gulf of Mexico.

It now goes to the president for his signature.

This comes as July marks the highest number of casualties on record, and thousands of leaked documents show what a hopeless waste the war has become. Not only do we continue to piss away billions in a nearly decade old, ever deteriorating conflict, but pedantic things like funds to prevent teacher layoffs were viewed as wasteful spending:

Top Democrats struggled to maintain support for the bill among more liberal House members, who have increasingly turned against the Afghan war effort and are upset about the loss of funding for programs designed to prevent teacher layoffs, among other things.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wisconsin, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, slammed the Senate for stripping domestic funding from the bill, including funding for teachers and other forms of education funding.

So apparently the moral of the story is that we have to invade our own country and go to war with ourselves before it becomes politically palatable to spend money on any domestic priorities. Perhaps if keeping our country from slipping into the third-world was considered a priority of national security, we could justify taking care of our own needs.

But since that won't be happening anytime soon, there's always this:

So, asked for an exit strategy, the administration instead offered up guidelines for an endless occupation.

And then last week, in a nearly unnoticed development at an international conference in Kabul, world leaders including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed their "support for the President of Afghanistan's objective that the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) should lead and conduct military operations in all provinces by the end of 2014."

That's right: The end of 2014.

"I was kind of struck that the 2014 didn't get more critical attention than it did," said Paul R. Pillar, formerly the CIA's top Middle East analysis and now a Georgetown University professor. "The war will have gone on 13 years at that point."

I'm sure a 13-year old war will go over real well with the public in the 2016 elections, but then again, we are too goddamned stupid and complacent to do anything (or elect anyone) that will take a position to the contrary.