This page was last updated on June 27, 2011.
The long goodbye; Editorial; Beaver County Times; June 26, 2011.
The editorial says, “In other words, men and women in the U.S. military face the prospect of being killed, wounded or maimed in Afghanistan for years to come. The American people will be saddled with paying for their presence there while vital domestic services are being slashed. The country will be burdened with even more debt to pay for the stay in Afghanistan.” Though my records may not be 100% complete in this area, I found no BCT editorials opposing President Obama’s decision to implement an Iraq-like troop surge in Afghanistan.
In case you think the first sentence in the quoted paragraph is an expression of concern for our military, please read my critique of “The others.”
As for the “American people will be saddled with paying …” comment and the crocodile tears about debt, I’m confused. Lefties routinely tell us we need the government to spend more to get us out of our economic mess. Since the feds are spending billions of taxpayer and newly-printed dollars in the U.S. to support our military in Afghanistan, why is the BCT complaining about the domestic spending required to support that effort? Which “vital domestic services” cited by the U.S. Constitution “are being slashed?” On the “positive” side, at least we have the BCT finally supporting a specific spending cut (national defense/security). You may recall previous BCT editorials on the topic bashed every proposed spending cut. Other than symbolic cuts by the General Assembly on itself and the executive branch on itself, the BCT “solution” to our state and federal debt/deficit problems has been increasing tax rates.
Finally, I not-so-vaguely recall lefties telling us our presence in Afghanistan was the “good war” when they were protesting the Iraq war. What happened? Yes, that was a rhetorical question. It’s like Mr. Obama opposing an increase in the U.S. debt ceiling when he was a U.S. senator, but now spins that opposition since he’s President and wants to increase the debt ceiling himself. According to ABC News, then-Sen. Obama (D-IL) said, “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.” Though the BCT referred to Republicans opposing an increase to the debt limit as “the height of hypocrisy,” the BCT didn’t mention Mr. Obama’s flip-flop. In fairness, the BCT has also flip-flopped on some issues since Mr. Obama took office.
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