balance and focus
Afghanistan: 647, 500 sq km / 28.7 million residents / $19 billion GDP – $800 million new money requested.
Iraq: 432, 162 sq km / 24.7 million residents / $58 billion GDP – $20,000 million new money requested.
according to a white house fact sheet issued with the president’s statement on sunday, “The Administration will request $20 billion to help secure Iraq’s transition to self-government and create the conditions necessary for economic investment and investment.” and “The request will seek an additional $800 million to address some of the most critical remaining security and reconstruction needs.”
to be sure, we’ve already spent considerable money (the fact sheet suggests some $1.8 billion from american tax payers and $5 billion from other nations) fixing afghanistan.
does this make sense? isn’t afghanistan where the actual terrorist training camps were (are?) isn’t afghanistan a more “clear and present” threat? – especially since we haven’t found any weapons of mass destruction in iraq? doesn’t every dollar we spend in afghanistan have a greater net effect?