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Thom's blog
War always comes home...
Benjamin Franklin is often quoted as saying that, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Well, you can actually add one more certainty to that list: Wars always come home. That’s right. While the people who start wars never think about it or plan for it, wars always come home.
After World War II and the Korean War, thousands of American soldiers came home with PTSD, and other mental wounds of war. Unfortunately, they never received the treatment and help they needed. After Vietnam, American soldiers came home with PTSD and they also came home carrying diseases thanks to exposure to Agent Orange. Today, that exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam is still being felt. After the first Gulf War, American soldiers came home with high levels of depleted uranium in their blood, and had children who were born with debilitating birth defects. And that brings us to today, in the aftermath of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tens of thousands of soldiers have come home with missing limbs, traumatic brain injuries, and hundreds of thousands have PTSD. But the soldiers aren’t the only ones who have come home. The defense contractors have come home too, and in the name of making a buck, they’re selling their Iraq and Afghanistan weapons of war to police departments all across our nation. And even worse, the militarization of our local police forces is being promoted by Congress.
Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the federal government, with approval from Congress, has given billions and billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment to state and local police forces. In fact, an analysis done earlier this summer by the New York Times found that since 2006, police departments across America have received 435 armored vehicles, 533 planes, 93,763 machine guns, and last, but not least, 432 mine-resistant armored trucks, because you never know when you’re going to run into ISIS-laid mines on Main Street USA.
Congress first authorized the transfer of military equipment to local police forces back in the early 1990’s, with the launching of the 1033 Program. According to the ACLU, the 1033 Program, launched as part of the 1989 National Defense Authorization Act and to promote the mind-numbingly stupid War on Drugs, “initially authorized the transfer of equipment that was ‘suitable for use by such agencies in counterdrug activities.’” And in 1996, Congress made the 1033 Program permanent and even expanded it so that more military weapons could end up in local police precincts.
-Thom
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