I know this is a center for the support of Al Gore and I do support him with all my heart. I’ll post what I find on him but that has become sparse lately other than meaningless stabs by the neo-cons.

My reason for this is to answer some of your questions as to why so many of my post are in the International Forum. First, that is the forum where the post belongs. The second covers a number of reasons. Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his farewell speech to the nation warned us to keep a close tab on the Militarily-Industrial Complex and he also warned us to never get involved in the Middle East. But we have paid little attention to his wise words and as a result have been at one war or another either direct or through covert actions to install a Government in some third world country that will favor and bow to us.

More than anything I would love to see Al Gore as President but I don’t see that happening and should it I am afraid he alone could not bring the changes we face world wide. These problems are like weeds that have been nurtured and allowed to flourish.

I say this because what happens in the rest of the world greatly affects us here in the US. I won’t go into the Iraq war because we all know, or at least those with half a mind, that it was illegal, based on lies and half truths and most likely planned long before 9/11.

Before giving you the facts of what we have paid in both lives and dollars I will give my opinion that no matter how long we stay the Sunni and the Shia will continue to kill each other just as the have through out history.

Now we will look at some of the facts and hopefully will we once again go back and reconsider Eisenhower’s words.

1. Stockholm Institute Peace Research (Spending valued at 2005 dollars.)
Est. World spending for military purposes was 1,200 Billion dollars.

2. Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation - Feb. 20, 2008
Est. U.S. military expenditures 700 Billion, (Note this does not include the cost of the war or any black box or covert surveillance carried out on private U.S. citizens. It does not include the money paid under the table to foreign countries for permission to fly over or establish bases in their countries and it does not include the high cost of so much private security.) Nor does this include interest so the 700 Billion est. is very low. The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in their report on Feb. 20, 2008 put the total of military spending by the U.S. at 1.473 Trillion Dollars.
And well worth noticing is that the U.S. spends 48% of all funds spent world wide for military purposes.

3. Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation- Feb. 20, 2008
Since Mar. 19, 2003 the Defense Dept. put the number of friendly dead troops at 4,039. This is after the Major Combat Has Ended photo operation so well planned by the Bush administration.
The D.O.D has listed the wounded as between 25,000 and 100,000. But then they also note that 320,000 suffer from brain injuries and at least another 20,000 are not listed.
Since the war in Iraq began the total numbers of all dead has been conservatively set at 1,199,782 but this does not count the Iraq civilians maimed and takes in not account of the millions and millions who are now homeless, refugees and no longer have running water or electricity (something they had before the invasion).

We continue to face Global warming, of this I have no doubt, but we must also deal with the export of U.S. jobs for lower wages, the cost of living here as well as world wide. And we cannot over look the shortage of fresh water and food both here and throughout the rest of the world.

What happen in the far reaches of the world does affect living conditions here.