After veiwing my friend James's blog, an Embed of the US spending on the war in Iraq caught my eye.
This lead me to wonder, how much is this pointless conflict costing us? So I decided to find out.
Before I go any further into explainations, I shall go off at a tangent, to draw your attention to a fact that I want you to bear in mind whilst reading this post.
I was watching a documentary earlier on today about the Veitnam war. They were highlighting a Battalion of US marines, called the Black Lions, and their story. Towards the end of the film, some of the veterans were explain their first major "Battle" in that area, along with some really ineresting accounts from Veit Cong Veterans. The point i'd like to make, is the Americans were massacred, losing 64 men out of 130 and everyone else injuired and the government put on a huge spin about how many men there were, and what actually happened that day.
If this is how governments inform the public is conflicts, then imagine what could be happening in this one.
Alot of people refer to this as "The war in Iraq". I've studied countless wars over the years, and this is no such thing. The opposing government has been overthrown, and their lands seized. All that America and the United Kingdom are doing now is putting down civil unrest, which I understand is going to be difficult, but statistics prove that insurgency levels are not decreasing, but increasing. Is there any point in all of this if no matter how many billions of pounds, and priceless lives we throw at this country, they come back in bigger numbers?
So far the United Kingdom have lost 179 soldiers, and when added to that of the United States and other countries, brings the total of KIA to 4720. This is not even including the number of missing or captured, or wounded and unfit to work. Plus tens of billions of UK pounds and trillions of US dollars.
There are some who say this isn't worth it, and we should pull out immediately, and others who think that we've come this far, we should see it through to the end.
To be honest, I find it quite offensive that people say "This isn't worth it". So what you're saying is that our young men and women are out there, fighting and dying and their lives aren't worth it? And they gave their lives for nothing? But on the other hand, risking more of our soldiers seems pointless and stupid.
It's my opinion that we should help set up their government, then get the fuck out of there before more of our boys are put at risk.
That's my opinion.
