A proposal for those serving in Iraq/Afghanistan..

Good morning to you!  Maybe not so good if you're stuck in Iraq on your fifth tour? (never saw that coming did you?)  Today, in Washington, the usual suspects will hootin' and hollerin' about the middle-east.  All of them claiming to be advocates of your cause, make of that what you will.   I personally don't believe that the Petreus testimony will change much.   It didn't last time around so why would this be any different?   I'm trying to cut through the noise and all I see are elected grey hairs desperately anxious for these media events to impress their constituents with lots of grandstanding.  

So military units are starting on their 5th and 6th tours, if memory serves me correct.   I Bet the rank & file never saw this one coming, sucks eh?   That's quite a sacrifice these guys & gals are making for the country.  Being stuck in a rotten sandpit for years on end, surrounded by psycho warlords and lousy desert weather and lacking a decent golf course.    

Who knows when the occupation will end?  Maybe in a year.. maybe 5 or 10 years.. maybe 100 if John McCain becomes president.   When they finally do come back from their final tour of duty a lot of these soldiers & marines will be rich with grey hair and ready to retire.   And probably sick & tired of Iraq, if they aren't already.

I have an idea, disagree if you want, it doesn't solve anything but it seems like a fair idea.  Because the way things have gone in this country for the last 5 or 6 years things have really gotten out of balance.  The balance has been lost because while our government sends young and fearless warriors to a god forsaken sandpit to engage in killing and destruction the only sacrifice we've been asked to make is to "Go out and shop, travel to disney land, be a good consumer!"  And how have we!  Flipping homes, drawing from lines of home equity credit to pay for the new Hummer and big screen tv, speculating in real estate and living the high-life.  Rampant stupidity combined with risk-free credit have turned this place upside-down.  Wall street investment banks and a corrupted regulatory system did everything they could to help us out.

But the fun and games are over.  Lines of credit are being squeezed tight, flipping homes has become unprofitable as RE prices sink and consumers max out their credit cards and look to bankruptcy for relief.   So I'm proposing that the tens of thousands of foreclosed homes that sit vacant across the nation are given away to those serving in the battlefields of iraq & afghanistan.

Free & Clear? Maybe.. maybe not.. How about a $25K mortgage, 30yr fixed at 2%, no downpayment on any the stupid McMansions we've built over the last 7 years.  The sale price would be ridiculously cheap but at least the investors that do own the property get something back and this would give the occupants an incentive to live in the property (many of these vacant homes are falling apart, being stripped of their copper pipes/wiring/etc and need fixing up.)  

What right does the government have interfering in the private sale of a home? None whatsoever, but this government has already proven itself beyond the pale, so this kind of intervention wouldn't shock anybody.  They're already giving out $150 Billion dollar tax rebates and $30 billion dollar bailouts to the pigmen on wallstreet, and all during a time of war.   Ya, we're getting $600 rebates to spend at Disneyland while soldiers die in Iraq.  Nice.

Why can argue with mortgaging vacant properties to soldiers & marines at a heavy discount, it's not really that outrageous.   And this is not without precedent.   During the hey days of the Roman empire retiring soldiers were bestowed with plots of farmland on the edge of the frontier.  Sure it was  dangerous territory but they had at least earned a tangible asset for their 20 years of loyalty.  

If a infantryman coming back from Afghanistan after 5 tours of duty wants a plot of 40 acres in Montana.. Give it to em, thats what I say.   I'm sure there is plenty of federal land to parcel up for this adventure.  They earned it, let em have it.

Suburban Fire Sales!