“You are what they say you are.”
-Jack Donavan, NPI speech from 2013
U.S. homeless rate: 7%
U.S. veteran homeless rate: 13%
Unemployment rate for veterans under 25: 25%
U.S. health care cost increase since 2000: 200%
Annual income for U. S. Army private of 2 years: $40,400
Annual income for U.S. Army captain, 6 years: $93,000
Military commissary food discount: 30% [that means it is being sold at the wholesale cost]
Pentagon retirement budget: 4.5 billion
Veterans who have earned a Pentagon pension: 17%
-Yahoo news
To date U.S. taxpayers have paid $150 million to 43 Afghan companies who are known [according to the SIGAR] to finance attacks on U.S. soldiers.
Current U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan is 37,500 [not counting approximately 95,000 mercenaries]
The Pentagon projects the need for 10,000 troops to remain in country just to protect American officials expected to be left behind after 2014.
The death rate for Afghan security forces increased by 80% from 2012 to 2013
The Afghan Army’s annual attrition rate is 34%, having lost 67,000 troops through death and desertion in 2013.
Currently 100 Afghan troops are dying per week.
-RT.com
According to the DOJ 49% of prison rapes are committed by correctional officers.
According to the DOJ of all prison rapes reported, only 45% are referred for prosecution.
According to the DOJ only 1% of those corrections officers charged with prison rape are convicted.
-RT.com
Okay class, for this week’s project write a 500 to 1,000 word paper describing whether you would rather serve in the Afghan Army or spend time in an American corrections facility—and why. Have the paper on my desk by Friday morning or report to the janitor [the big scary looking dude on work release] for bubblegum removal detail.
