The Cost of War Has Impacted My Life Personally

I promise not to turn my blog into a political venting machine but I just came across the to date cost of the Iraq war at http://costofwar.com. As of today, actually, this very second, (because it literally goes up hundreds of thousands of dollars in the course of one or two minutes) it is $430,198,788,622.

Now, I am not a socialist by any means. I don't want to depend on our government to "take care of us". God made us completely able to care for our selves in most cases. However; I have a daughter with MULTIPLE special needs that relies on special services from our school system. She's been involved in our school system since she was three. Every year, funding for these special services is CUT! Mostly in part because of federal cuts due to this administration. She is mainstreamed in a normal classroom and does AMAZING considering all that she is overcoming daily. However, she's going into the 2nd grade this upcoming year and we are having to hire a tutor out of our pocket because she's not where she needs to be but yet - she didn't qualify for summer services. Funding cuts!

Additionally, I have my Gran. She's 84 years old, congestive heart failure, moderate dementia, she's been hospitalized for the past 2 1/2 months and in a nursing home receiving skilled care for the past two weeks. We were just notified that she was turned down for long term nursing home care through Medicaid. She qualified financially but she did not qualify medically. This is a woman who can't remember that the number for help is our phone number, which she has written in black sharpie pen on her refrigerator or that it would be 911. She refuses to stay on her oxygen and is pretty non-compliant regarding her meds. So, I guess she is going home and I guess she will go to sleep one night and just not wake up.

I know there are definitely elderly individuals far worse off than her but how on earth these professionals think that this woman can care for herself 24/7 is beyond me. Oh, I forgot... there have been SUBSTANTIAL budget cuts so the criteria for qualifying for long term care has gotten almost impossible to meet.

Do we need to worry about Katie loosing her State and Federally funded health insurance? We can't cover her privately because the costs are so astronomical.

WHY are we spending this unbelievable amount of money on a country that never asked us to come and do what we are doing? We aren't even taking care of our own anymore. Don't even get me started on our veterans and how they are not being cared for after doing exactly as their Commander in Chief ordered them. Has anyone paid attention to this... The Worlds Largest and Most Expensive Embassy In History....

The $592 Million U.S. Embassy In Iraq

Construction of the U.S. embassy in Iraq, set to open in September, is projected to cost $592 million, with a staff of 1,000 people and operating costs totaling $1.2 billion a year. It will be a 104-acre complex, which is the size of approximately 80 football fields. On May 10, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) criticized the ballooning size and cost of the embassy in a hearing with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

Now, having said over and over again that we don’t want to be seen as an occupying force in Iraq, we’re building the largest embassy that we have — probably the largest in the world — in Baghdad. And it just seems to grow and grow and grow. … We agree that we should focus our aid locally not in Baghdad, but we have 1,000 Americans at the embassy in Baghdad. You add the contractors and the local staff it comes to 4,000.

The architectural firm designing the embassy, Berger Define Yaeger, has posted the designs for the colossus on its website. Some previews of the compound’s planned swimming pool and tennis courts:

The complex “will include two office buildings, one of them designed for future use as a school, six apartment buildings, a gym, a pool, a food court and its own power generation and water-treatment plants.”

The U.S. embassy is likely to create even greater Iraqi resentment toward the U.S. occupation. While Americans will be living in posh quarters, the citizens of Baghdad are forced to survive with just 5.6 hours of electricity a day. Baghdad was also recently rated the world’s worst city in which to live.

UPDATE: The residence of the U.S. ambassador to Iraq will be 16,000 square feet. The deputy chief of mission in Iraq will have a “cozy cottage” measuring 9,500 square feet.

Like Forrest Gump says, "That's all I have to say about that!"

Leeann :)