“It’s the economy!”…   And “It’s the numbers!” that reveals the winner.

                                Dwayne Hunn

 

The Greatest Generation won World War II because a resourceful economy was tied to hearts, minds, and a loved land.  Today, the numbers tell why we are losing an economy, hearts, minds, and a loved land, and why we need to field the American World Service Corps to win today’s endless terror.

 

“It’s the economy!” focused Bill Clinton’s winning campaigns and replenished our nation building coffers. 

Today, “It’s the numbers!” that should direct today’s nation building.

While our self-created enemies’ un-uniformed armies grow by immeasurable leaps and bounds, we must offer $20-80,000 bonuses, seek law-breaker recruits, and hire private mercenaries, perhaps equal in size to our Iraq stationed troops, to continue a terrifying form of nation building.

To opium farmers struggling on a couple thousand dollars a year, we post wanted signs of a gangly Arab supposedly holstered to a dialysis machine: “Reward $500 million.”

Number of takers?  Zero.

Poll Votes

Meanwhile, in Iraq, polls shows 70% believe the U.S. force increase has made "security in areas where these forces have been sent" worse; 18% say better.

http://www.pollster.com/blogs/poll_abcbbcnkh_iraq_survey.php  

Seventy-two percent of troops on the ground in Iraq think U.S. military forces should get out of the country within a year, according to a 2006 March Zogby poll.

Employment

   Our incursion has led to skyrocketing cost of living increases in Iraq and:

·         As much as half of the labor force being unemployed.

·         A decline in median income by more than half.

·         “Significant countrywide shortages of rice, sugar, milk, and infant formula,” according to the UN’s World Food Program.

http://www.stopwar.org.uk/Statistics.htm

   Imagine 75 million broke American laborers, with their hungry kids roaming America’s streets.

Refugees

In 2007, the 2,000+ year old tribal area called Iraq was a nation of 27.5 million; 200+ year old America hit 300 million.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, in 2006 there were 1.9 million Iraqis displaced internally, and up to 2 million in neighboring states, particularly Syria and Jordan.  Egypt hosts an estimated Iraqi population of more than 100,000, and in 2006, Iraqis had become the leading nationality seeking asylum in Europe. 

In America, those four million refugees would amount to 14.4% of our population or 43,091,476 displaced Americans, which is the equivalent of everyone in California, Washington, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota seeking asylum in Mexico and Canada.

By early 2007, internal displacement was estimated continuing at a rate of up to 50,000 a month, or .18%.  In America that would drive 545,462, or the population of a Boston into homelessness each month.

http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/iraq?page=intro

Education

Of an estimated 300,000 Iraqi school-age children in Syria, only about 33,000 are currently enrolled in school, although the government has given them full access. In Jordan, the government estimates that 19,000 Iraqi girls and boys are in school, while at least 50,000 do not attend.

http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/iraq?page=press&id=46a9ddfc2

Death Toll

In 2006, the Lancet Medical Journal reported that due to the US-led invasion the Iraqi death toll had reached an estimated 655,000, or 2.4% of their population.  In America that would amount to 7,146,000 dead Americans; equivalent to burying everyone in the state of Virginia since 2003.

How determined a fighter would you be, if of your 100 relatives, friends, and neighbors,  46 were dead, refugeed, wounded, or unemployed, or 12,548,910 out of the Iraq nation of 27,499,638.  If each of those 12.5 million harmed Iraqis influenced just two friends to dislike Americans, we would lose 91% of the hearts and minds of the nation.

How friendly would America be if the equivalent number of Americans, or 130,363,456, were dead, refugeed, wounded, or unemployed?

http://www.worldservicecorps.us/iraq%20america%20death%20ugly%20rates.xls

Would you enjoy the proclaimed Freedom Ride?  Easily flip sides?  Where might your patriotic action lie?

Soldiers Vote

   And what did our soldiers have to say?  A 2006 Zogby Poll of our troops said:

72% wanted withdrawal within a year.

23% stay as long as needed.

42% unsure of the nature of the mission.

85% were in Iraq to retaliate for Saddam's 911

 

Post traumatic stress disorders among troops range from 20 – 30+ percentage.  Those burdens will be felt for decades.  And the immediate psychological damage of leaving our Star War clad troops in the midst of a civil war is reflected in suicide rates.  In 2006, Army soldiers committed suicide at the highest rate in 26 years, 17.3 per 100,000, and more than a quarter did so while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20288335/

 

Spreading our ideals

   An August 2007 ABC News/BBC/NHK survey of Iraqis found: 

·         33% approve of the way Nouri Kamel al-Maliki is handling his job as prime minister; 66% disapprove.

·         70% believe the our past six month force surge in Baghdad and surrounding provinces has made "security in areas where these forces have been sent" worse; 18% say better. 

·         47% say U.S. and other coalition forces should "leave now" from Iraq, 34% say they should "remain until security is restored", 10% say "remain until the Iraqi government is stronger," 7% say "remain until the Iraqi security forces can operate independently, and 2% say "remain longer but leave.”

http://www.pollster.com/blogs/poll_abcbbcnkh_iraq_survey.php

Our government funds President Bush’s public relations expert, Karen Hughes, and American media outlets to win the public relations game in a region of the world we have blown apart.  Al Jazera Television doesn’t even have to run the numbers.  Al Jazera just shows the desperate lives our policies have forced on so many. 

Our armed approach loses hearts and minds and produces fanatics willing to die to leave this hell for their perceived heaven.  As a smart President Eisenhower said, “You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.”  He also said, “Today we compete to win new hearts and minds…”

Too much of the world is not knowing unarmed Americans of good will.  Consequently, more and more are falling into the belief that Americans are devils, or evildoers. 

Hearts & mind

   A PEW Poll of 2005/2007 reflects how well we are winning hearts and minds and gaining allies:  Those with favorable views of the U.S.

                             2000             2002             2006             2007  

Pakistan                        23%                                                    15%

Turkey                         52%                                                       9%

Jordon                                         25%                                   20%

Morocco                                                                                                15%

Palestine                                                                                                13%

Egypt                                                                           30%                21%

Support among our allies as well as Eastern Europe has fallen dramatically since 2000, often by 20-40%.  Neither our military nor economy can prosper in a complex world that increasingly dislikes us.

          What’s needed? 

America needs an unarmed, productive army whose good works and example wins hearts and minds, while making the world a safer, smarter place.  By urging you representatives to sponsor, cosponsor, or support People’s Lobby’s citizen-initiated American World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposals, you can help field a team of one million American volunteers per year for the ensuing 27 years.

When passed, the small staff AWSC umbrella organization will provide cost effective investments in American volunteers that will dramatically bolster the size and effectiveness of such organizations as the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Habitat for Humanity, Head Start, Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, OxFam, Mercy Corps, and State Conservation Corps.  Read the proposed legislation at: http://www.worldservicecorps.us/world%20service%20backup%20proposal%201yr%20national%20service.htm

Nation building by sending mission driven, not missile laden, Americans will dramatically reduce poverty, climate change, ignorance, and terrorist recruitment, while raising our public policy understanding. For details: http://worldservicecorps.us/peoples%20lobby%20has.htm

When off-line and hidden costs are included, what’s the annual cost to support each of our 1.4+ million military personnel? 

About $800,000 for 2007.  With more off budget and hidden costs piling up, and Secretary of Defense Gates in September 2007 requesting another $190 billion to the 2008 supplemental requests, who knows the final bloody tally.  http://worldservicecorps.us/revsawsccosts.xls

The investment cost to have 21 million American World Service Corps volunteers serving and learning at home and abroad for the next 27 years?

About $700 billion.  A big number, but less than the total cost our preemptive incursion costs us in 2007.

The annual cost per American World Service Corps volunteer?  About $35,000 per year.

In order to reduce dramatically that soaring warfare induced cost and to avoid future Vietnam and Iraqi quagmires, push your Congressional employees to introduce and implement People’s Lobby citizen-initiated American World Service Corps (AWSC) Congressional Proposals.  For your loved ones, it is among the smartest ten minutes you can spend and the most cost effective means to field a 21st century Greatest Generation to rebuild American’s economy, character, and the world.