US cannot afford it's Empire

Received this from Roger Cole of the Peace & Neutrality Alliance

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The US cannot afford its Empire. President Obama has asked the US Congress for $3.8 trillion for the fiscal year 2011 to run the Empire, only
33% of which will be paid for by taxes resulting in a $1.3 trillion deficit. This at a time when more US citizens according to Prof. Warren of Harvard are going bankrupt than getting divorced and the middle class of the United States is being destroyed.


According to Winslow Wheeler of the Center on Defence Information the annual cost of running the military-industrial section of the Empire is well over $1 trillion a year. The simple realist fact is that the US Empire is destroying the lives of its own people to maintain itself. It is also destroying the lives of the people who live its vassal states like Ireland where the cost of guarding its de facto US Airforce base at Shannnon Airport is nearly €10m to date. The simple realist fact is that those of us on the Peace & Neutrality Alliance by opposing Ireland's participation it these wars are the only people offering an alternative to the massive economic crisis caused by this neo-liberal militarist ideology that has dominated the corporate media for decades. On the 14th of February 2010 PANA will be supporting the Shannonwatch BLACKHEART vigil at Shannon Airport. We will be holding a conference on Wednesday 10th of February at 11.00am to encourage the med! ia to give the event coverage prior to the event.

It is nearly 7 years since PANA, the NGOPA and the IAWM organised a massive demonstration against the war and Ireland's participation in that war. Yet at the last election Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Labour Party all made it crystal clear they supported the war and Ireland's participation in the war thus endorsing the neo-liberal militarist agenda that has caused Ireland's economic meltdown. Only a clear and decisive break with this ideology will restore peace and economic stability, starting with the termination of the use of Shannon Airport in the war and the withdrawal of the 7 Irish soldiers taking part in the occupation of Afghanistan.

Roger Cole
Chair
Peace & Neutrality Alliance
http://www.pana.ie/