Sgt. Zachary K. Tokomoto, an assistant convoy commander with Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, ground guides a vehicle into the motor transportation lot at Forward Operating Base Geronimo, Afghanistan. | US Marine Corps photo by <a href="http://www.marines.mil/_layouts/imagemeta.aspx?image=http://www.marines.mil/unit/imef/PublishingImages/2010/101007-M-1558F-039.jpg">Sgt. Mark Fayloga</a>.
Tom Brokaw has an excellent op-ed in Monday’s New York Times. Here’s the gist:
Notice anything missing on the campaign landscape?
How about war? The United States is now in its ninth year of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, the longest wars in American history. Almost 5,000 men and women have been killed. More than 30,000 have been wounded, some so gravely they’re returning home to become, effectively, wards of their families and communities.
In those nine years, the United States has spent more than $1 trillion on combat operations and other parts of the war effort, including foreign aid, reconstruction projects, embassy costs and veterans’ health care. And the end is not in sight.
We do a lot of national security, contracting, and military reporting here at Mother Jones. (We also try to keep the wars on peoples’ minds with the War Photo of the Day.) But there’s only so much one outlet with limited resources can cover. So please, read your Danger Room and your Army Times and your Tom Ricks and your Crispin Burke and so on. Politicians may not be paying attention to the wars. But you can still keep yourself informed.
