They neither have achieved anything beneficial to the US from Afghanistan war, nor did it make Afghanis more secure. It just seemed to be a repetition to the Iraqi war. Nobody can win in the war on terror, because it is not a traditional war, and the enemies scatter among the civilians. The American government should exit the war on terror, but of course they need a clever political strategy to convince the public. Anyhow, the government just needs to stir the fear of people's personal financial situation over the fear of the national security. They need to get their message across. Obama is not too good at it.
His position is secure, but all of the House and Senate Democrats are not. Even if he took on the military spending, his own party will vote according to their own political interest. The Democrats will not author or vote to support controversial legislation, and even if it did, the Senate would not vote to enact it. President Obama actually has very little say in the matter. Also, even if he supported reigning it in, Conservatives would jump on his statements and paint all Democrats as weak on defense (even if they privately agree with the Dems). It's really kind of sad.
Yeah, but as soon as you try and convince the public of something, you're taking a stand. The Dems know that if they do that they are opening themselves up to political attack from the Republicans. I'm sure they'd love to do what they feel is right on this and a number of issues, they just don't want to do that if it means they might have to get a new job in a couple years. Their integrity only runs so deep. Same goes for the Repubs. >This article made me worried about my retirement, and my financial situation. Oh no! I wouldn't get too worked up about it. If the situation gets too bad they'll do something, they'll just wait until the people wise up and get so angry about the issue that they start voting them out. Right now though, there are too many people susceptible to having the 'national defense' card played on them. Collectively, as a people, we get what we put into our Democracy. As it stands, Americans say they care about corruption, and out of control spending, but in reality they really don't. They don't take the time to educate themselves about the issues, we'd rather watch American Idol or something. We're lazy and uninformed, and because of that we allow corrupt people to govern us.
I'll say this though, even if Americans took voting more seriously, we'd still have a tough time fighting through all of the lies, spin, propaganda, and money that the special interest groups and lobbyists are throwing at our representatives and at us through the media. It never ceases to amaze me how many Americans vote against their own interest...