The Rocket's Red Glare

Dear Mr. President,

The War on Terror, The War on Drugs, the Gulf War, the Iraq War, the covert wars, the list is endless. Some are history, some still rage and all of them are catastrophes for mankind. No war is ever really won and they all come at a terrible cost to both invaded and invader. Your War in Afghanistan costs $10 billion a month, the War in Iraq cost close to a trillion dollars, and no one knows how much your covert wars cost because that information is classified, an Official State Secret in the name of National Security. I read where it cost $11 billion last year just to keep information secret–and that doesn’t include the cost of the 17 spy agencies–“Classified Information.” Hold on a minute, here, Mr. President. $11 billion of We the People’s tax dollars each year to keep information from We the People? And we can’t know how much our covert wars and spy agencies spend every year because of National Security? Something’s really wrong with this picture. I read that the War on Drugs costs about $25 billion a year and that war’s been going on for 20 years and, even though no politician is about to admit it, that war is a total failure. Another half trillion bucks down the toilet, tens of thousands of lives lost, and no end in sight. No money for education or pensions or social services, but $25 billion a year for the War on Drugs, $10 billion a month for Afghanistan.… Like all wars, we’re fighting the wrong enemy, ignoring the obvious solutions to problems and paying for it with violence, injustice, and lasting enmity. You said once, referring to Bush’s illegal and unjustified invasion of Iraq, that you weren’t against all wars, just dumb wars. All wars are dumb wars, Mr. President, even your wars, a sickening waste. Iraq, Afghanistan, the War on Terror, you covert wars, targeted assassinations, drone strikes–unimaginable misery for them and generations of hatred toward us. Stupid, illegal acts of aggression that go against American values, the rule of law and the human soul’s innate sense of right and wrong. On this 4^th of July I don’t see much to celebrate. Mired in wars, mired in debt, mired in hopelessness and with a war criminal president who claimed to be someone he was not, who betrayed us, who betrayed the Constitution, who betrayed human dignity. Not much to celebrate today, more sorrow than celebration in the rocket’s red glare, more shame than pride in the red, white and blue.