Anderson@Large

Down and Out in Urban America

A new report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that most metro areas will have high unemployment for years to come. Some findings:

• By the end of 2011, 75 metros will have double-digit unemployment rates, and 193 metros (53%) will have rates higher than 8%.
• Unemployment rates are expected to exceed 10% in 69 metros; 9% in over 100 metros; and 8% in 173 metros until the end of 2012.
• At the end of 2012, 311 metros will have unemployment rates above 6%; 173 metros will have rates above 8%; and 69 metros above 10%.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said:

It’s time for Congress to get on with the serious business of legislating short and long-term solutions to our jobs crisis…. We need to stand for a new world order in federal spending. It’s time to bring our investments back home. We can’t be building roads and bridges in Baghdad and Kandahar, and not Baltimore and Kansas City. Not when we spend $2.1 million on defense every single minute. Not after nearly $1.2 trillion spent and over 6,000 lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Say it.

Live from the Oval Office

Last night, President Barack Obama addressed the nation on the war in Iraq.

I received an embargoed copy of the speech in advance and decided there was no need to tune in. As read, it was a boring mash-up of the Obama speech template.

Frankly, I don’t want to hear about the “end of the combat mission in Iraq.” Instead, I want to hear that all of our brave men and women in uniform are coming home, now.

Iraqis were being terrorized when we got there. They will be terrorized long after we turn off the lights.

And at some point, we will turn off the lights. When we do, we will have absolutely nothing to show for the thousands of American lives lost.

President George W. Bush’s justifications for going to war were to wipe out the mythical “weapons of mass destruction” and this whopper:

We fight them over there, so we don’t have to fight them over here.

Well, the terrorists are here.

Memorial Day 2010

Iraq and Afghanistan are out of sight, but the wars continue to take their toll in lives lost and hundreds of billions of dollars wasted.

Since 2001, 1,085 Americans have died in Afghanistan; another 4,400 Americans have died in Iraq.

This year alone, 139 Americans have died in Afghanistan.

Rep. John Conyers Jr. recently formed the Out of Afghanistan Caucus, whose members include Reps. Barbara Lee, Jim Moran and Maxine Waters. Their goal: The swift redeployment of the U.S. military.

During the White House press conference, Helen Thomas asked President Barack Obama: When are you going to get out of Afghanistan? Why are we continuing to kill and die there?

Over 5,400 young men and women have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This Memorial Day, let’s honor their sacrifice by saying “Enough.”

Obama’s War: The Remix

On the eve of President Obama’s address at the United States Military Academy at West Point, a Gallup poll found that 55 percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of the war in Afghanistan.

Obama’s “way forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan” likely will not change any minds:

As Commander-in-Chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home. These are the resources that we need to seize the initiative, while building the Afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of our forces out of Afghanistan.

In setting a timetable for withdrawal, Obama telegraphed his punch. The Taliban and al Qaeda will hide out in their caves and wait for our troops to hit the "exit ramp."

The fact sheet that the White House released subsequent to Obama’s speech makes it clear that “building the Afghan capacity” means nation-building:

We will maintain this increased force level for the next 18 months. During this time, we will regularly measure our progress. And beginning in July 2011, we will transfer lead security responsibility to Afghans and start to transition our combat forces out of Afghanistan. As Afghans take on responsibility for their security, we will continue to advise and assist Afghanistan’s Security Forces, and maintain a partnership on behalf of their security so that they can sustain this effort. Afghans are tired of war and long for peace, justice, and economic security. We intend to help them achieve these goals and end this war and the threat of reoccupation by the foreign fighters associated with al Qaeda.

Mr. President, Americans are tired of war and long for economic security.

Veterans Day 2009

Today, we pause and honor the brave men and women who have served in America’s military.

In light of the attacks at Fort Hood, I want to remember the victims of the Muslim jihadist.

At the same time, I want to express my outrage that in the name of “diversity” (read: political correctness), the Army and the MSM refuse to call a terrorist a terrorist.

It dishonors the memory of the victims to call a Muslim who wrote, “We love death more then (sic) you love life,” a lone religious nut.

Obama’s War

Oh, the irony.

On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that President Barack Obama had won the Nobel Prize for Peace.

In tonight’s season premiere, PBS’ FRONTLINE will air “Obama’s War,” a look at the quagmire that is Afghanistan.

The documentary includes an interview with Gen. Stanley McChrystal who reportedly wants the Nobel laureate to send as many as 40,000 80,000 more troops on top of the quiet surge of 13,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Eight years later, the world’s only superpower has not defeated the ragtag Taliban led by a one-eyed illiterate. As for why, McChrystal says it’s, well, complicated:

It’s complex. It’s hard. First off, the situation in Afghanistan is different than almost anywhere else, by terrain, by history, by culture.

Plus, the problem here has evolved. When we came in 2001, I think it was perceived as largely a counterterrorism problem. The Taliban started to come back, slowly come back from Pakistan and also stand up here slowly. So I think recognizing the rise in a true insurgency took a little bit of time.

And then of course we had other operations ongoing in Iraq, which took an awful lot of our capacity and attention at that time.

You can watch a preview of this unending mess online.

“Obama’s War” will air at 9 p.m. ET. To check your local listing, go here.

Bush's War

This week marked a grim milestone in Bush's War -- 4,000 U.S. troops dead. As one New Yorker asked:

What's the point? What are we fighting for? I think it's a hopeless fight. We are just losing people there. We have mothers without sons and young people without siblings.

There is no point to this war without end. Indeed, McClatchy reports:

A cease-fire critical to the improved security situation in Iraq appeared to unravel Monday when a militia loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr began shutting down neighborhoods in west Baghdad and issuing demands of the central government.

Yes, we must honor the sacrifices of our brave troops and their families. But to truly support the troops, we must bring them home alive.