Milestones

People, I'd just like to point out that we've now spent over one trillion dollars on our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One. Trillion. Dollars. American. Not pesos or rupees or something. American dollars. As an additional milestone, Afghanistan either is or will shortly become the longest war ever fought by this country. Narrowly edging out Vietnam and the combined efforts of World War I and II.

Now some of you might ask what we've gotten for all the time and ridiculous amounts of money we've spent over there. I'll tell you: we got Al Qaeda's #3. Again.

The operational leader for Al Qaeda in Afghanistan was killed in an American missile strike in Pakistan’s tribal areas in the last two weeks, according to a statement the group issued late Monday that American officials believe is correct.

Yeah! Seems worth it to me.

I personally am just glad we didn't decide to take that one trillion dollars and spend it on something like universal health care, our infrastructure, our power grid, green technology, technology in general, sciences and education, or otherwise use it to try to improve and better our day to day lives. Nope, bombs and guns and war, for little visible benefit. Much better use of that money.

But we do have to ask: where's our thank-you note from the military industrial complex? We didn't expect flowers or a phone call, but something--something would have been nice. Eh, maybe they're still writing up all the ones from Nam. Maybe next Memorial Day weekend.