Economy vs War

As you might or might not be aware that US has spent close to 900 billion dollars on the Iraq war and has lost close to 4500 American lives and 100,000 lives of Iraq civilians over the span of 7 years. The war happened on the premise that Iraq is holding on to weapons of mass destruction, harbouring Al-qaeda, and financing Palestine suicide bombers who instigated the chaos between Israel and Palestine.

Even though President Bush vetoed the bill to retrieve the troops from Iraq, after Obama took over, he kept his presidential campaign promise of retrieving the majority of American troops by Aug-31-2010. There are still 50,000 troops who have stayed back to train Iraqi soldiers and make them self sufficient in sustaining their country's peace and security.

Along with 50,000 troops in Iraq, there are about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. So, it is still becomes first and foremost priority of US government to support the troops and maintain their safety by providing all the financial support they need, and also provide emotional support to their families back home.

But interestingly during the midterm and after the midterm elections, neither of the parties (republicans and democrats) mentioned about anything related to the troops or their families serving for their country. The media found it very strange and it had open group discussions with different panel board members to understand this. I have chanced on one of these panel discussions where I heard one of speakers mention the  political reasons behind this issue. He said that the reason neither political parties referred anything related to war was due to American people not being very keen to hear about the war and troops when they are themselves suffering back home with no job and health benefits, as the Economy is worst hit only second to 1929 great depression.

That really caught my eye and thought. I realized that no matter how proud we can be about the troops fighting for our safety, when things get tough or ugly on a personal level we do not bother about the soldier who is sacrificing his life for his country and people. This is where we put our self interests in front of anything else.

This proves that after all we are the most selfish creatures ever made, and I feel that there is nothing wrong about that. What do you think?