Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Headlines That Reflect a Disconnect With Reality

"Harper agrees to release of Afghan war cost report". This is being made a big deal of by the MSM as a "TRUE costing of the war in Afghanistan".


You want the TRUE Afghan war cost report? You read it here first.



Prescott Shipway, Sergeant

Andrew Grenon, Corporal

Chad Horn, Private

Mike Seggie, Corporal

Shawn Eades, Sergeant

Stephan Stock, Sapper

Dustin Wasden, Corporal

Erin Doyle, Master Corporal

Josh Roberts, Master Corporal

James Arnal, Corporal

Colin Wilmot, Private

Brendan Downey, Corporal

Jonathan Snyder, Captain

Richard Leary, Captain

Michael Starker, Corporal

Terry Street, Private

Jason Boyes, Sergeant

Jérémie Ouellet, Bombardier

Michael Hayakaze, Trooper

Étienne Gonthier, Corporal

Richard Renaud, Trooper

Eric Labbe, Corporal

Hani Massouh, Warrant officer

Jonathan Dion, Gunner

Nicolas Beauchamp, Corporal

Michel Levesque, Private

Nathan Hornburg, Corporal

Raymond Ruckpaul, Major

Christian Duchesne, Master corporal

Mario Mercier, Master Warrant officer

Simon Longtin, Private

Jordan Anderson, Corporal

Cole Bartsch, Corporal

Colin Bason, Master corporal

Matthew Dawe, Captain

Jefferson Francis, Captain

Lane Watkins, Private

Stephen Bouzane, Corporal

Christos Karigiannis, Sergeant

Joel Wiebe, Private

Darryl Caswell, Trooper

Darrell Priede, Master corporal

Matthew McCully, Corporal

Anthony Klumpenhouwer, Master corporal

Patrick Pentland, Trooper

Allan Stewart, Master corporal

David Greenslade, Private

Kevin Kennedy, Private

Donald Lucas, Sergeant

Brent Poland, Corporal

Christopher Stannix, Corporal

Aaron Williams, Corporal

Kevin Megeney, Corporal

Robert Girouard, Chief Warrant officer

Albert Storm, Corporal

Darcy Tedford, Sergeant

Blake Williamson, Private

Mark Wilson, Trooper

Craig Gillam, Sergeant

Robert Mitchell, Corporal

Josh Klukie, Private

Glen Arnold, Corporal

David Byers, Private

Shane Keating, Corporal

Keith Morley, Corporal

Mark Graham, Private

William Cushley, Private

Frank Mellish, Warrant officer

Richard Nolan, Warrant officer

Shane Stachnik, Sergeant

David Braun, Corporal

Andrew Eykelenboom, Corporal

Jeffrey Walsh, Master corporal

Raymond Arndt, Master corporal

Kevin Dallaire, Private

Vaughan Ingram, Sergeant

Bryce Keller, Corporal

Christopher Reid, Corporal

Francisco Gomez, Corporal

Jason Warren, Corporal

Anthony Boneca, Corporal

Nichola Goddard, Captain

Matthew Dinning, Corporal

Myles Mansell, Bombardier

Randy Payne, Corporal

William Turner, Lieutenant

Robert Costall, Private

Paul Davis, Corporal

Timothy Wilson, Master corporal

Glyn Berry, Diplomat

Braun Woodfield, Private

Jamie Murphy, Corporal

Robbie Beerenfenger, Corporal

Robert Short, Sergeant

Ainsworth Dyer, Corporal

Richard Green, Private

Marc Leger, Sergeant

Nathan Smith, Private



Volunteers, each and every one of them. Killed halfway across the world while selflessly trying to improve the lives of complete strangers. None of them WANTED to die, but all of them knew it COULD happen - and yet still they went.

THAT is the cost of this war.

Whether you agree with the mission or not, whether you think they should come home right now, in 2011, or 5 years ago... if you think the cost of this mission is measured in dollars, you're completely out of touch with reality.

98 broken families. 98 young Canadian men and women dead. That is the cost of this war. Whether that cost has been worthwhile is up to each of us to decide for ourselves - there's not even unanimity among the 98 families who have paid that price.

So, no matter if the monetary cost has been 8 Billion, or 10 Billion, or more... even at $10 Billion, that's $500 for each taxpayer. Sure, I've got things I'd rather spend $500 on than taxes...

But ask Chad Horn's family what this war cost them. I don't think they'll be talking about their tax dollars.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very well said

Anonymous said...

Yes, well said.

But getting back to the cost for a moment. Does it really matter what the exact number is? Really, we know the number is higher than zero and below tens of billions, but how do you evaluate the number? Whether the cost was in millions or billions, some would say it costs too much, and some would say the cost is worth it - both for reasons that do not rely on money, but rather their ideological support (or lack thereof) for the war.

Even though I know many intelligent people read this blog (well, at least one), we don't know what a war "should" cost, in dollar terms. You can't say that War "X" in Year "Y" cost "Z" dollars, and have that translate into what it would cost today. The best you could do is take the cost of the war and compare it to total GDP, and then take a look at historical ratios of the same. But it doesn't answer the question of whether or not we should be there.

Anonymous said...

My real fear is that a govt that won't spend enough in dollars (good training, equipment, shelter, tools and weapons) will increase the cost in lives.

Our troops need to be fully supported, here and on any UN missions we are on. If we are not careful we may discover soon enough why countries have a military at all... Afterall, what exactly is Russia doing, or likely to do, in the arctic?