Close up shop, come home. Give us all a break.

[Paper Roses]

I'm sick of war, sick of hearing about it and paying for it.
What we save without wars would help so many millions of people rise to a better standard of living...here at home.

So we pay more for oil. Well, I can't afford it now either but if we don't have to pay zillions of dollars for wars, maybe we can establish a realistic subsidy to help those for whom the price of oil based products is too great. Left over money could do wonders for other things like education and infrastructure.

I'm not talking about $1.00 items, I mean heating oil, gasoline and the like. Big ticket stuff.

Not counting the smaller skirmishes, I've lived through at least 5 wars. That my friends is 5 too many.

[AndyA]

1. With all the talk about the deficit, no one mentions how fast it could be paid down

if we weren't spending billions every month on the wars.

It's ridiculous. Iraq and Afghanistan are Obama's wars now. He could end them if he wanted to. He owns them, regardless of who started them or what was done to start them, the blood is Obama's now.

[vaberella]

3. People talk about it...but that's the one thing, if not others, that Dems and Repubs will never do.

End war to save money.

[vaberella]

2. I prefer your post over another, over the top post, on this section.

I, too, am tired of this bloody war. I think I understand it and then sometimes I don't. I have misgivings and then I sometimes think this may be justified. I haven't lived through 5 wars but I'm living through about 2-3. I'm exhausted and this is too much. I do have faith this will end though with President Obama. Iraq is already decreasing and we're getting people out. Afghanistan withdrawal will happen next year, I hope. So there are these things to consider. Bush brought us in, but I am slightly more faithful Obama will get us out.

[midnight]

4. Yes, Give us all a break and bring them home.

[depakid]

5. America’s War in Afghanistan Now Officially Longer than Vietnam

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/06/americas-war-in-afghanistan-now-officially-longer-than-vietnam.html#ixzz0rlrPpxSK

[Raster]

6. Unfortunately the American Military/Industrial Complex, the "war machine" will not allow peace.

Peace is not profitable. Peace also means the minimization of the war machine, which has tentacles in every industry and every state.

"Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

"We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
President and Retired General Dwight D. Eisenhower

[HughMoran]

7. I agree

The price we pay to keep Afghanistan stable is not worth it because the place will deteriorate the minute we leave (at least that's how it looks now.) I'm glad we've setting deadlines - get Afghans in charge of their own destiny or leave and call it a failure - 10 years is long enough.