Pull Out!

You've filed your tax return and cashed your latest unemployment check, but wait. You still owe the Department of Defense.

Let's see: the rent, the car, the gas, the insurance, the food, the utilities... oh, right. The war.

Your share this month: $74.07.

You haven't forgotten your monthly obligation, have you? Your war bill continues to fight a "mission accomplished" six years ago in Iraq, and guess what? The president just asked for more.


Today -- on the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad -- Obama requested more than $83 billion to pick up the war tab in Iraq and Afghanistan through September.

I know, he's desperately trying to pick up after the eight-year frat party. Give him time. Thing is, Obama says our troops will stay put in Iraq until the last day of 2011.

That certainly puts time on the side of Obama's re-election campaign, but it dangerously flirts with more division at a time when we should all be working. Together. With benefits. And without war.


For those 135 million Americans who pay their taxes, their war bill blasts their bottom lines every month. At just over $74, I suppose it beats cable. But, you see, I like cable. And when it's angry, it only deletes that Top Model episode my wife hasn't seen yet.

Folks, we must immediately stop complaining about bailout money and economic turmoil until we decide to stop spending $10 billion dollars on Iraq every month.

Call up your congressman and shout, "Pull out!"

We must redirect to American taxpayers every dollar earmarked for this Iraq disaster, just as Obama pledges to redirect military focus to Afghanistan. Every misspent American dollar in Iraq could bail us out rather than drown us.


Remember: you scoffed when Congress approved a trillion dollars of your money to save A.I.G., Fannie and Freddie. It may have been necessary. But your $74/month sure ain't paying the bills.



-P.F.