Why are we fighting over small beans? Or: Our money is in Afghanistan.

[socks_mahoney]

It seems to me like this forum has presented a lot of false choices in the past few days.

Paint a decrepit building or rehab it. Build a statue of Robocop or spend the money on schools and neighborhoods.

These are not the only choices we have. This nation has a lot of money, its just a matter of priorities. We can keep Robocop and start funding schools with all the money we send to Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan/Yemen that just goes BOOM.

Furthermore, if all these creative young people [[who mind you, really can't always get traditional jobs if they want to stay here) were given some of this money to work with instead of some mullahs in Pakistan.

When are Detroiters going to raise this question? "Theres no money for the schools" "Theres no money for viable mass transit" "Theres no money for a proper police force". Bullshit. The powers that be just don't want to give money to the groups that control this city. This is, in part, racism yes. But there are deeper forces at play. There's enough money to fix Detroit, if this nation's priorties were straight and it was given to the folks who have the energy passion and desire to remake this place. And lets face it, it needs remaking.

We need to move past this narrow focus of fighting over small pots of money. There's a lot of money out there, we just aren't getting it. We need to make these choices that policy makers and politicians have before them more clear. This community needs help, I'd say more than Afghanistan or Iraq ever did. Whats it gonna take?

[kelseystatic]

I agree. The amount spent on this war is staggering. Think of the billions we could be spending domestically! But you know if the war stopped, they would come up with something else to spend their money on. They magically always do. :/

[j to the jeremy]

This thread makes too much sense to be on DetroitYES. Shouldn't we be fighting over 50 year old race issues and local politics?

[[I agree with you wholeheartedly. If the US gov't was interested in anything other than corporate and military profiteering, our urban areas would look drastically different. )

[BrushStart]

Both these articles appeared today on the frontpage of the Detroit News:

http://www.detnews.com/article/20110...for-war-damage

http://www.detnews.com/article/20110...ot--Gates-says

The US military industrial complex is too big to be stopped because too many people have their hands in the money. War is big business and until the corporate-government cronyism is exposed and defeated, the US will continue to spend billions or trillions on destroying and subsequently rebuilding other countries while Americans' quality of life deteriorates to squalor.

[R8RBOB]

Both these articles appeared today on the frontpage of the Detroit News:

http://www.detnews.com/article/20110...for-war-damage

http://www.detnews.com/article/20110...ot--Gates-says

The US military industrial complex is too big to be stopped because too many people have their hands in the money. War is big business and until the corporate-government cronyism is exposed and defeated, the US will continue to spend billions or trillions on destroying and subsequently rebuilding other countries while Americans' quality of life deteriorates to squalor.

It always amazes me how people are ready to dump on Detroit [[Case in point: the Eminem/Chrysler commercial) and yet the same people wouldn't bat an eyelash when the Military–industrial complex hands over billions and billions of dollars to prop up a place like Iraq yet Detroit, one of the oldest cities in the United States is left to rot and mock so people can have something to point at and tease like kids do.

[1953]

I think it naive to suggest that local governance and foreign policy are either-or propositions. Clearly, we need strong local communities and a wise foreign policy.

We can debate how much money we should spend on foreign policy, but like any organization, the quality of our brand matters to our health and welfare. Think not? Remember 9/11? Oh yeah, that was people attacking us because they didn't like our brand.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have fertilized seeds of humanity already present in the Middle East. By bringing freedom of expression, increasing equality of opportunity, and the prospect of individual liberty, we are helping to grow global freedom and improve the human experience. These may not be entirely economic benefits, but I don't doubt that they will one day bear economic fruits, also.

[Islandman]

Those two examples are oversimplistic, especially when you look at how both of those regimes were put into place. There's just no "money" in fixing Detroit. Imagine what just a month of the money spent Iraq/Afghanistan would do locally. The damn light rail would have been built already.

[1953]

@Detroitnerd: I'm not sure what you're getting at.

[Kevgoblue]

Hmmmmm.......let me think for a second. I get it.

[Funaho]

In the case of Iraq I seriously doubt it's ever going to work no matter how much we blow it up. Iraq wasn't even a country before 1920, when it was defined by committee out of the remains of the Ottoman empire. at best it's a loose association of various competing tribes, many of whom have hated each other for a thousand years, and expecting that to change virtually overnight is hopelessly optimistic.

Come to think of it, that paragraph at least in part describes the entire Middle East. It's not going to change until the people there change it themselves. The recent string of protests and revolts in Arab nations over the past two months has given me hope that that change may finally be coming, but it's going to be a long process.

[1953]

P.S. Why do you deserve a residual for freeing people in oppressed countries?

[gdogslim]

We need to increase taxes on the poor. That will bring in a few dollars.
We need to cut all Entitlement programs to zero. That will save hundreds of billions.
We need to kill all the Narco Dictators in the world, take all their drug money and give it to Detroit.

[1KielsonDrive]

Here we go again. I know this will be offensive to those demicans who love to defend NO!bama. If NO!bama was truly a bright, new, visionary politician, he'd have started the ball rolling to get our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan immediately upon inauguration. He wouldn't have had Rick Warren [[who hates NO!bama for his race and supposed liberalism) do his prayer duties. The thought of a racist, homophobe like Rick Warren, doing anything for someone across the aisle, risking millions of dollars of right-wing support for his mega church, is ridiculous. Guantanamo would've been resolved. The NO!bama administration wouldn't be fighting against gay marriage as they are now and DADT would've been handled a long time ago. NO!bama says one thing and his administration does the opposite. This man, other than his race, is hardly different than most other occupants of the white house, other than his immediate predeccessor, have been. All we needed in this country when NO!bama was elected, was stand-up and fight kind of guy. All we got was a lost in the headlights kind of guy. Not up to the task.