Since this blog is about homegirls (and boys) and security, I think it is appropriate to share here a brilliant analysis by Karen Finney at The Hill exposing costs of war that fall through the cracks in budget proposals.
This is the real cost, and it is incumbent upon all of us to consider deeply how secure continued operations and deployments keep us and whether current levels are worth these costs . Equally important is our encouragement to legislators to be certain these costs are covered in current and future budgets. Not worth merely a read, worth sharing every way you know how. Homegirl Karen hit a home run with this one!
By Karen Finney– 03/19/12 06:14 PM ETWe may never know all of the factors that led an American soldier to allegedly murder 16 people in Afghanistan. The more we do learn, the more it seems there were signs of the toll that repeated deployments, an injury and the stress of his situation back home were taking. None of that excuses what the soldier reportedly did. However, given the number of Americans who have served or are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan who could be facing similar stressors, we have a responsibility to better understand and factor in these human costs in any conversations about the way forward — particularly for the benefit of the 40 percent of U.S. citizens who still believe the war is worth the costs.
Edited to add:
This is more than an op-ed in a column. In a comment in the thread below I called it a treatise. Karen Finney may well be the 21st century Thomas Paine for women and others. Looking at this text again, I see it as the basis of a doctrine, the Finney Budgetary Doctrine. This is very important information that Karen has compiled, and the implications are enormous and look far down the road. That is where we all should be looking.
Posted 1 a.m. Tues., 05.11.10 – Candice Britton (left), the sole Democrat challenging U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay (right), D-St. Louis, in the Aug. 3 primary is launching her campaign by reaching out to a core demographic: Democrats who backed Hillary Clinton for president.
