The State of Black America, Part Three: The War at Home - What the Invasion of Iraq is Costing Us Stateside

Date: Wednesday, January 17, 2007
By: Michael H. Cottman

EDITOR'S NOTE: "The War at Home - What the Invasion of Iraq is Costing Us Stateside" is the third in BlackAmericaWeb.com's six-part State of Black America series. Coming Friday: Honest talk about the black family.



When President George W. Bush announced to the world last week that he will deploy 21,500 additional troops to Iraq, his so-called new direction for war confirmed what many black Americans knew all along: America’s military mission has failed and will likely result in more flag-draped caskets and less funding for domestic social programs.

The death count among U.S. soldiers in Iraq has surpassed 3,000. And Tuesday, an explosion outside a Baghdad university as students were heading home killed at least 65 people in the deadliest of several attacks on predominantly Shiite areas. The attack came on a day the United Nations said more than 34,000 Iraqi civilians died last year in sectarian violence, nearly three times the number reported dead by the Iraqi government.

"The president is trying to convince Americans to support a war that is misleading, disingenuous and costing lives," Hilary Shelton, Washington, D.C. bureau chief for the NAACP, told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

The Bush administration has spent billions of dollars on the war -- and counting. In February, Bush is expected to ask Congress for $100 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His plan to add troops is estimated to cost an additional $5.6 billion, and Democrats have already suggested they plan to block any additional war spending proposed by Bush.


The Christian Science Monitor reported this week that the war in Iraq is quickly approaching the spending levels of both the Vietnam and Korean wars -- a staggering $600 billion. But unlike those conflicts where the country pitched in by doing things like purchasing savings bonds, the U.S. "has used its credit card, counting on the Chinese and other foreign buyers of its debt to pay the bills. Now, as President Bush is promising to boost the number of troops in Iraq, there is increased scrutiny over how the U.S. is going to pay for it all."

Peter C. Groff, publisher of Blackpolicy.org and executive director of the Center for African American Policy at the University of Denver, said the Congressional Black Caucus and the new Democratic Congress must challenge Bush on Iraq -- and in fact, lead the charge.

"Endless forays into distant and hostile foreign lands should be of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, and CBC opposition to the war shouldn’t be a carbon copy of Democratic caucus press releases," Groff told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

"Although 13 percent of the U.S. population is black, nearly 30 percent of enlisted personnel in the Army are black," Groff said. "Hence, the war disproportionately impacts African-Americans and the poor as black men and women in uniform are shouldering a significant portion of the U.S. military burden."

PODCAST: Senior Correspondent Michael Cottman
talks with Peter Groff about the war in Iraq and its impact on the black community.

"Therefore," he added, "it’s incumbent upon the CBC to use its newfound leverage in creative and unprecedented ways that can stop a flawed war. This is also an opportunity for the CBC to actually lead aggressive congressional scrutiny of and opposition to a flawed war."

In a poll of its user audience conducted by BlackAmericaWeb.com, 72 percent of those surveyed said they do not support the war in Iraq because Bush never made a convincing case for war; nearly 90 percent said the billions of dollars spent for the Iraq war would be better used at home to fund education, health care and social programs, and 91 percent said they would not advise their loved ones to join the Armed Forces to support the war in Iraq.

Shelton said the war in Iraq today has historic similarities to a time four decades ago.

"It’s interesting that we’re discussing the war in Iraq around Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday," he said, "because in 1967, Dr. King talked about going to war in Vietnam and how it was very clear that as long as government focused on war efforts, domestic concerns like poverty would never be adequately addressed. Forty years later, we’re still talking about where the money will come from for much-needed programs like education and health care at a time when the government is spending billions of dollars for war."

Activists angered by President Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq staged anti-war demonstrations in several major cities last week, protesting that the buildup will cause more bloodshed and give insurgents new American targets. Last week’s protests were cast as a prelude to a bigger gathering on Saturday, Jan. 27 in Washington, where demonstrators plan to urge Congress to stand up to Bush.

But in an interview broadcast Sunday night on CBS's "60 Minutes," Bush said he has the authority as commander in chief to move ahead with the deployment, regardless of what the Democratic-controlled Congress does in opposition.

"I fully understand they could try to stop me from doing it," Bush said. "But I've made my decision. And we're going forward."

Black congressional leaders are equally defiant.

"We want the war ended, and we want our troops out of there," Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Kilpatrick said she prefers trying diplomatic efforts in the Arab community to resolve the situation in Iraq, saying more fighting and the escalation of U.S. troops is not the answer. "The best way to deal with this issue is talking to people, and talk openly," she said.

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) said he vehemently opposes Bush’s new direction on the Iraq war.

"The additional cost of this new operation is estimated at nearly $6 billion and those are tax dollars which can be used to fund needed programs here at home," Johnson told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

"We will give our troops the support that they need until we can responsibly bring them home, but voters in the Fourth District and across America have made their position abundantly clear concerning this war," Johnson said. "I had hoped that the President was listening."

Perhaps the president was not listening.

Bush's aides took pains to portray the war plan as in line with the thinking of both his generals and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. But the president ignored that group's central recommendations: Pulling U.S. troops back by next year, changing their mission right away and recruiting help from Iran and Syria.

Polls show the U.S. public overwhelmingly does not like the idea of escalation in Iraq. Democrats always in opposition were joined very publicly by some Republicans in dissent. Even Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had to be persuaded to go along with a larger U.S. presence in Baghdad.

Bush is so sure of eventual success in Iraq that he once told some leading Republicans, "I will not withdraw, even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me," referring to the first lady and his Scottish terrier, according to Bob Woodward's recent book, "State of Denial."

"He is as isolated as a president can be," said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Boston University.

New York Times columnist David Leonhardt on Wednesday analyzed the financial costs of the Iraq war, showing how $1.2 trillion could be invested in America.

"For starters, $1.2 trillion would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign -- a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children’s lives," Leonhardt wrote.

"Combined, the cost of running those programs for a decade wouldn’t use up even half our money pot. So we could then turn to poverty and education, starting with universal preschool for every three- and four-year-old child across the country," he wrote. "The city of New Orleans could also receive a huge increase in reconstruction funds."

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), who established a presidential exploratory committee Tuesday in a potential bid to become America’s first black president in 2008, said Bush’s war plan is questionable.

"We're still mired in a tragic and costly war that should never have been waged," Obama said on his Web site.

Meanwhile, Groff said the war represents a test of political will for the Congressional Black Caucus and the new Democratic majority in the U.S. Congress.

"How tough will they be in the face of stubborn, lame-duck Bush administration opposition? At the moment, the president still appears to call the shots as Democrats are too weak, too confused or too cautious to lay out a solid position or plan," Groff said. "Therefore, he’s able to utilize the bully-pulpit."

"That’s unfortunate considering Democrats now control the purse strings and can determine the course of the war through aggressive oversight and fiscal responsibility," he added, maintaining that Democrats must take action on Capitol Hill, not just offer spirited rhetoric.

"It can be politically problematic if Democrats approach such functions and their responsibilities in a clumsy partisan manner and stale talking points," Groff said.

In an op-ed piece written last week, Ron Walters, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, argued that Americans are suffering at home because of expenditures in Iraq for a war America can’t win.

"The 'new' to surge 21,000 more troops is accompanied by a proposal to put $5 billion more into a rat hole called the Iraq War, an amount that compares to that in the annual U.S. budget for the Community Block Grant Program that funds many worthwhile project in American cities, which the Bush administration has cut back in the appropriations each year," Walters wrote.

"Let’s say that Baghdad is 'stabilized' and that the new strategy of 'clear and hold' is adopted by the military," Walters wrote. "Then what?"

"How long will American troops be able to hold their positions, and will they become sitting ducks as they hold these positions for more attacks and more casualties as a result?" he asked. " So, it appears that Bush is ready to sacrifice the troops -- and I use that word purposefully -- in the service of a questionable gamble that the infusion of more troops might help to 'stabilize' at least Baghdad. This would appear to be a recipe for the continuance for failure."

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Associated Press contributed to this story.