Five New Reasons to End the Wars

We all know that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are killing thousands or Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis, and costing U.S. taxpayers trillions of dollars. But here are a few more, less obvious, costs of the wars that have come to light over the past month or so:

- The wars are corrupting the military contracting system. Check out the story of Efraim E. Diveroli, the 22-year-old arms dealer who got a $300 million contract from the U.S. government to supply the Afghan army with bullets. He sent over paper bags full of 40-year-old Chinese ammo.
- Congress is investigating disturbingly high incidences of rape by U.S. military personnel and contractors against their colleagues.
- They're destroying our military, as the number of new recruits drops, reenlistment falls and soldiers and sailors refuse to go to Iraq.
- The BBC reported this week that teenage Iraqi war refugees are resorting to prostitution because the war has destroyed every other means of earning money to feed themselves and their families.
- Chinese nationalists are using the Iraq war as an excuse to continue their repression in Tibet. "No one can criticize what we're doing in Tibet," the argument goes, "because what the U.S. is doing in Iraq is worse."

The wars - and especially the Iraq war - are the most important issues in this election. The housing crisis will pass. Healthcare coverage will advance and decline in fits and starts no matter who's in the White House. But what the U.S. is doing in Iraq is creating a hell on Earth for millions of people, and slowly destroying our own country from the inside. But try telling that to the liberventionists. If a presidential candidate like Barack Obama won't promise to lower their taxes, they'll find a warmonger like John McCain or Wayne Allyn Root to vote for.