Posted on 03/29/2008 1:28:35 PM PDT by Hillary'sMoralVoid
Dead Wrong on the Iraq War - An Open letter to Michael Savage
Michael,
I respect your intellect, but I believe it has failed you on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
First of all, your conclusion that these are wars we cannot afford is ill-conceived a nd not supported by history. Secondly, you do not consider the consequences of exiting the war. Thirdly, you ravage our history of winning both the war and the peace by insinuating that these wars are “unwinnable”.
The economic argument: The thought that we cannot afford a $120-140B per year war is absurd! This represents one percent of our GNP. Look at World War Two, in the last year of major spending, 1946, we spent over 40 percent of our GNP on that war! Did that kill the economy? No. We followed that with the Marshall Plan, as well as a reconstruction plan for Japan, and then we stationed more than 200,000 troops in both Japan and Germany to ensure the peace. Now remember, this huge force was from a total U. S. population of only about 140 million! Did that kill our economy? No.
We then went into Korea, a much larger and more costly war than Iraq and Afghanistan combined . We left about 100,000 peace keepers there, too. Soon we were in Vietnam. Michael, do you remember the 600,000 troops that we had in that country? Kinda makes the 130,000 in Iraq look like a brushfire war, doesn’t it? By your calculus, that should have doomed the economy. But wait, we were also fighting the Cold War, maintaining troop levels in Europe and Asia close to what they were at the war’s end. Let me also interject that during this time period, we concurrently fought the largest, most costly, and the only unsuccessful war in our history, the War on Poverty. Our economy wasn’t doomed, then, just like it isn’t doomed now, at least as a result of military spending.
We went from military spending in the 1950s that was roughly 10% of GNP, to a low of 3.8% in 1998. Even with that low expenditure which should have resulted in the rest of the economy being robust, Bush 43 had to contend with a minor economic slowdown in the first year of his presidency.
If you track military spending as a percentage of GNP and the overall growth of the economy, you will not see any consistent relationship between military spending and economic malaise. In fact, the opposite has often been true. That is because military spending is deficit neutral. It consumes resources, but creates jobs, training, technology, discipline, education, and favorable outcomes whenever we have been willing to win the war as well as the peace.
It is not Iraq and Afghanistan that are draining our economy, it is the greed of banks, corporations and politicians that you have so articulately outlined on your show. Has the war been well executed? No. Has any war ever gone according to plan? No. Does that lessen the importance of winning? No!
Can we Afford to Lose? Michael, I have shown that military expenditures have not brought down our economy in the last 60 years and it won’t today. What is more likely to bring down our economy is walking away from Iraq and Afghanistan.
If those countries fell into chaos, the other regional players would be likely to become involved, namely Iran and Saudi Arabia, but perhaps others. How could this affect us? By some estimates, each dollar increase in gasoline prices driven by crude oil prices costs our economy more than $150B. With the Middle East in turmoil, greater increases are not only fathomable, but likely.
An Unwinnable War? Michael, if you believe this war is unwinnable, shame on you for calling yourself an American!
If someone had looked at the United States manufacturing capabilities in early 1940, looked at our military preparedness, or looked at our stockpiles of strategic materials, they would conclude that the war that would come against Germany and Japan was absolutely unwinnable.
After World War Two, if someone would have said that Germany and Japan would never be involved in another war over the next 60 years, the naysayers would have cried “impossible”.
If someone had said that we would “fight” and win an incredibly costly Cold War for 40 years, while also fighting regional wars in Korea and Vietnam, while also pursuing a highly costly and unsuccessful social engineering program called the War on Poverty, they would have declared us bankrupt, defeated and no longer a world power.
The problem is, the United States has proven the naysayers wrong. There is never a war we’ll lose if we are willing to win the war and win the peace. Vietnam proved what will happen when we fail to do that latter. If you think winning the peace is a short-term venture, think again. We presently have more troops continuing to win the peace in Korea, Japan and Germany than we have in Iraq. John McCain’s 100 years is not unthinkable, nor is it illogical. We will probably continue our commitment to Europe an Asia for at least that long.
I happen to possess a real Audacity of Hope. I believe we can win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, if we are willing to look beyond our greed, our next Lexus, or the extravagant new house mortgaged with our children’s future. Winning the peace won’t be easy, but I know we can do it.
Shame on you, Michael Savage, if you don’t share that hope. You don’t believe in the America I know.
Which Michael Savage have you been listening to? The Savage I heard was gung-ho when the war begun, and started criticizing Bush and Rumsfeld for being too SOFT on the war effort, as everyone now agrees they were for far too long. Savage was also right in excoriating Bush for taking his shoes off in a filthy mosque after 9/11; for not banning Sharia Law in the new Iraqi Constitution, and for permitting Iraq to stay in OPEC.
Michael Savage is a fraud. Anyone who thinks he’s a “conservative” talk show host, needs to pray for discernment.
Sorry, you lost me after that, savage(michael weiner) is nothing more than a San Francisco huckster.
If you listen to Savage, he’d like to see Iraq pay for the work that we are doing with some of the bajillions of barrels of oil that they have.
That’s different from what you’ve written here.
Savage isn’t a conservative and his stage name isn’t his family name; he’s a fraud chasing a buck.
How much did 9/11 cost the US economy? How much would another one cost? You can’t put a price tag on survival.
IIRC all flights were shutdown for a week or more. How much did "That" cost in lost revenues alone? Not to mention all the ancillary business that was lost like hotels and restaurants and vacation places and that is just the Tip of the iceberg.
Keep in mind the WOT includes the Border; we are losing the border War.
As per Iraq, Afghanistan, is this all we are gonna sacrifice if this is WW3? This is it? We are doing the best we can? Nope.
War includes improving our refining abilities, are drilling capabilities and usage.
To limit War as just Iraq and Aghanistan is limiting our future vitory.
We can do better. We need AAR’s to improve our Warfighter capabilities. Nothing wrong in criticizing war.
Michael Savage also supported with money, Jerry Brown our former gov. when re ran for Atty Gen. A far Left Democrat.
I listen to Mark Levin, whose ratings far outnumber Wiener Nation AKA Savage.
Savage’s views on not affording the war is out of the L Ron Paul play book.
The enemy won’t let his type keep his 401Ks and savings.
They don’t make pocket’s in shrouds.
Dr. Weiner is a UC Berkeley PHD who lost out in academic politics. For revenge he adopted a conservative populist persona and started throwing bombs at his former colleagues. It’s made him a small fortune.
Yes, I think you hit it.
Shoes come off when visiting our house - common courtesy because we don’t want street dirt on the rugs ... folks who visit like it because it makes them feel more comfortable .... and other than Savage - he does have a cute dog .....can’t stand some of his shows .....
To be fair, Savage has had moderate Muslims on his show as (friendly) guests.
I believe Doc Savage’s point is that the war is unwinnable as it is being fought now. Fighting the WOT includes protecting the borders!
Politically correct Rules of Engagement will lose every time.
Doc is rock solid on the Haditha Marines and similar cases.
You must be getting Savage mixed up with Alan Colmes, Savage's national ratings and rankings put him consistently at #3 NATIONWIDE, Levin does not come anywhere close to that and at best has only 1/3 the number of affiliates that Savage has.
Why do almost all freepers on this thread hate the Doc?
Its making me depressed. I think I will go out for some greasy chinese food.
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