Stacy Bannerman at Other Words writes—Enough Folded Flags: Military Families Speak Out Against the Afghan War:
You’d hardly know it from the news, but we’ve been continuously at war in Afghanistan since 2001. The war quietly turned 17 on October 7.
Unfortunately, America’s amnesia didn’t prevent Command Sergeant Major Tim Bolyard from being killed in Afghanistan in early September during his eighth combat tour and 13th deployment.
Eight combat tours — which should be illegal — sent Bolyard down-range repeatedly in a war President Obama purportedly ended over three years ago. A war this country forgot long before that.
A nation that doesn’t remember the men and women sent to fight on its behalf has no business whatsoever sending more. And a democracy that spends more time debating kneeling before the flag than the justification for issuing folded ones desperately needs to get re-acquainted with the Constitution — and its moral compass.
Our loved ones didn’t sign up to serve a president. They signed up to serve the American people, most of whom have no idea what they’re fighting for.
I don’t know, either. Nor do any of the other 4,000-plus members of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO). [...]
Shame on a country that continues to take our troops to wars long declared done, squandering their service and absolving the collective conscience with two words: “They volunteered.”
The fact that soldiers wear the uniform by choice shouldn’t permit “the American people and their elected representatives to be indifferent about the war in Afghanistan,” retired Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry told the New York Times.
The former commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan added: “We continue to fight simply because we are there.” [...]
TOP COMMENTS • HIGH IMPACT STORIES
QUOTATION
"Do not wait for the perfect message. Don’t wait to feel a tingle in your spine because you’re expecting politicians to be so inspiring and poetic and moving that somehow, ‘OK, I’ll get off my couch after all and go spend the 15-20 minutes it takes for me to vote,’ Because that’s part of what happened in the last election. I heard that too much."
~~Barack Obama
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2015—This is what your state on Republicanism looks like:
This is what happens when Republicans run the joint.
South Carolina depends almost entirely on its gas tax to fund highway maintenance, and it hasn't raised its gas tax since 1987. Even before the floods, 20 percent of the state's 8,300 bridges were rated structurally deficient or structurally obsolete, and a road advocacy group made up of business leaders estimated it would take $500 million extra a year just to patch the pothole-dotted roads that shake vehicles as they drive over them.
So what happens when you neglect your basic infrastructure?
South Carolina Department of Transportation worker Radames Zambrana was at a bridge Wednesday where flood waters washed out the support underneath. He was getting ready to request big barricades be put up instead of the small traffic cones to make sure no one drove on the intact pavement, supported by almost nothing.
"I'm seeing this everywhere," Zambrana said, pointing at the gaping hole under the bridge where soil was washed away.
About 260 roads and 150 bridges remained closed Wednesday, many of them washed out, according to the Transportation Department.
Pshaw. Who needs roads or bridges anyway?