Dear Al-Jazeerah Editor,

For all the talk about the hows and whys our economic situation has come about, little is said about the original perturbation. That is the wars in the Middle East. It can be shown with little analysis that even small amounts of money taken away from an economy can make even a strong economy go bust. Negative cash flow has a “snowball” effect on an economy; especially one that is highly leveraged.

In the United States, there is so much more credit floating around than actual cash. With U.S. war expenditures of  around twenty billion a month, 145,000 U.S. troops still hunkered down in Iraq, not to mention the equal number of mercenary contractors on the U.S. payroll in Iraq, the drain on the U.S. economy is most significant. 

Add to this the costs of war in Afghanistan, and U.S. military operations throughout the rest of the world.  For those looking, the current economic crisis was too easily seen. Before any fundamental economic problems can be solved, the hemorrhaging of money flowing away from the U.S. economy must stop. That requires the wars overseas to stop.

Actually, it is only a matter of time. With the economies of major western countries now sliding into default, one can almost wager on how much longer the prosecution of wars will be sustained. However, I guess that it really depends on how much of a fool the next U.S. President will be. Yet let us fear not.  No solution to the economic mess really needs to be found. It is just a matter for us as good people to walk away from it.

Most Respectfully,

Robert Shule

Hampton, Virginia

P.S. Robert Shule is a professional engineer working in the United States. He is a patriotic U.S. citizen with no political affiliations.