Iraq Violence Unquelled, While U.S. Entertains Bored Soldiers: Salsa Dancing, Book Clubs, Origami

Sunday's two truck bombings in Baghdad, which killed "155 people including 24 children on a bus leaving a daycare center," per AP, painfully illustrates the futility of U.S. efforts to help quell internal Iraqi violence, despite more than six expensive years of U.S. occupation.

Yet, as of October 2009, the U.S. continues to spend $7.3 billion monthly in Iraq. And the human toll for the the Iraq War is horrifying: 4,352 American soliders dead, almost 32,000 more seriously wounded and maimed, tens of thousands more suffering debilitating psychological wounds.

(See quick-reading, full details at Iraq War Results & Statistics at Oct 12, 2009.)

If U.S. soldiers were fully engaged in productive, peaceful efforts in Iraq, I would still harbor grave doubts about the wisdom of our government spending almost $100 billion in Iraq in 2009 when tens of millions of Americans are hurting so badly, as evidenced by:

• underfunded, under-performing public schools with skyrocketing drop-out rates,
• the disgrace of 40 million Americans with no access to health care,
• a national unemployment rate of 9.8%, the highest in 26 years,
• overcrowded, overused, underfunded homeless shelters, food banks, soup kitchens.

But the jaw-dropping fact is that, for the most part, the 124,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq are often idle and bored. USA Today reported last week in U.S. troops in Iraq have time on hands:

"Combat is still a daily reality in some parts of Iraq, and U.S. troops are being killed here at a rate of about one a week. But for many troops in places such as this large military base in southern Iraq, traditional soldiering such as kicking down doors and searching for roadside bombs has at least partly given way to book clubs, karaoke nights, sports and distance-learning university programs."

Soldiers interviewed by USA Today also describe filling empty moments with "salsa dancing, yoga and martial-arts classes" as well as origami, fight clubs, and "smoking from hookahs."

As if hundreds of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars already wasted, lost, stolen, and frittered away in Iraq isn't enough, now we're paying to entertain bored troops who feel understandably frustrated and depressed at their stale inactivity.

Here at home, Congressional Democrats are fighting vigorously to find funds for healthcare reform, and the desperate need among the American people has never been more acute since the Great Depression...

... and yet we continue to waste colossal amounts of money and manpower daily, monthly, yearly in Iraq. Why? What the heck for?

Withdraw most U.S. troops from Iraq now. We will never solve the internal problems of Iraq, and Americans here at home are in dire need of those billions.

(Photo taken on October 25, 2009 as U.S soldiers stand guard as they secure the Baghdad Provincial Council site where two car bombs exploded in Baghdad, killing 155 people and injuring 500: Muhannad Fala'ah/Getty Images)