It's official now: Hurricane Katrina demonstrated how the war in Iraq costs us at home.
"Another major factor in the delayed response to the hurricane aftermath was that the bulk of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard was deployed in Iraq," says a confidential Department of Defense report leaked out on Oct. 3.
This follows upon the Sep. 9 statement of Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, head of the National Guard Bureau, who said the Guard lost a day or more in responding to Katrina because of Mississippi and Louisiana Guard deployments to Iraq.
The Guard was sent to Iraq supposedly "to attack them before they attack us." That was the cover story grabbing Iraq's oil. The real story is Iraq is in ruins. Oil pipelines are sabotaged. Iraqi resistance is growing. And it is costing us dearly at home.
The costs of the Iraq war are far more than the $250 billion in supplemental appropriations already authorized by Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support (with $50 billion more currently pending Congressional approval).
Linda Bilmes, Assistant Secretary of Commerce from 1999 to 2001, recently enumerated a full accounting of the costs, including privatization of military functions, rising recruitment budgets, foreign aid inducements to the so-called "Coalition of the Willing," interest on this debt-financed war, military hardware replacement, higher oil prices, and, most costly, long-term disability and health care for wounded vets.
Using conservative assumptions for these costs, Bilmes finds the full cost of a five-year Iraq occupation to be $1.3 trillion, or $11,300 for every US household.
The people of cities like New Orleans and Syracuse, which have similarly high poverty rates of 27-28 percent, are paying the price. $1.3 trillion could go a along way toward providing the jobs in infrastructure renewal, housing, education, youth programs, and renewable energy our cities need.
Every bomb of destruction dropped on Iraq is also a bomb of neglect dropped on our communities at home. It's time to bring our troops home and take care of our own people.
46 Vermont towns, Chicago, Gary, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and other municipalities have adopted bring-our-troops-home resolutions. It's time for Syracuse Common Council and the Onondaga County Legislature to do the same.
Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for Mayor
Gary Bonaparte, Green candidate for 2nd District Councilor
Cosmo Fanizzi III, Green candidate for 16th District County Legislator
David Linton, Green candidate for 17th District County Legislator