Musings for Monday
W.J. Astore
A quick Google search reveals that, "According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, it would cost $20 billion to end homelessness in the United States." That's roughly the cost of a few dozen ICBM interceptor missiles (estimated cost: $18 billion) that are unlikely to work and which may encourage potential adversaries to build more nuclear missiles to overcome them (assuming they do work, but hitting a bullet with a bullet is truly a long shot). Another cost comparison: ending homelessness in America could be done for the cost of roughly 150 F-35 jet fighters. Another: ending homelessness in America could be done for less than half the yearly cost of America's Afghan War. Yet we'd rather build interceptors, fighter jets, and continue wars than house the homeless.
I'm seeing predictions by America's generals that Afghan national forces will likely collapse if U.S. combat troops are withdrawn by 9/11. Yet the U.S. military has been training those same Afghan forces for nearly twenty years, all the while making "progress" according to those same generals. What gives? If after two decades Afghan forces don't have the wherewithal to defend themselves despite untold billions in U.S. assistance and aid, isn't it logical to assume they will never have the wherewithal?
Of course, it's an effective strategy for U.S. generals to warn of an impending collapse after Biden's troop withdrawal. For when it comes, they can say "we told you so" and shift the blame for the loss to Biden and the politicians. Sorry, folks, Afghanistan was never ours to win to begin with. It wasn't even ours to lose, because we never "had" it. Never mind that: Whenever the U.S. military loses anywhere (including Vietnam), there is always someone else to blame.
The NFL draft concluded this past weekend, and once again I was astonished by the media coverage: the sheer amount of resources dedicated to it. Just go to ESPN, for example, which has "draft cards" on every player with all their vitals, including video highlights. If only the media devoted a tenth of the resources to covering America's various wars across the globe! With verifiable metrics and video highlights (or lowlights). It's good to know that sports are much more important to our nation than the military's global presence and actions.
And now to return to the beginning: Why not act to end homelessness? WWJD: What would Jesus do? I always remember from Catholic mass how Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry, and helped the poor. Where's that Jesus nowadays? He seems to have been replaced, at least in America, by Prosperity Gospel Jesus, who shares good news and money only with the richest and most fortunate of Americans.
Can I please have "old" Jesus back? The one who helped lame people to walk and blind people to see?