COVID Pandemic vs. Selfish Cries of Freedom

Patriots would wear masks and get vaccinated.

But, the loud self-proclaimed “American Patriots” seem to be occupied with posts on social media declaring Pres. Joe Biden should be impeached over the botched Afghanistan exit.

Adherents of the Cult of Trump have been arguing the Afghan anti-terrorism action was a waste of significant resources. In many ways, I don’t disagree. But if you’re concerned about time, money, and life, you should be loudly supporting coronavirus vaccines, wearing masks, and other safety protocols.

You want to argue costs, COVID-19 has cost lives and money. The losses could have been significantly reduced through a plea for patriotic resistance to the virus.

But, no, the followers of our former president want the “freedom” to ignore the costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s a false equivalency to compare an anti-terrorism operation to a virus, but I’m going to make a point that the pandemic has been far more costly than our military actions in Afghanistan this century. By some measures, COVID-19 and its variants have likely exceeded the costs of our twentieth and twenty-first-century military engagements.

The Civil War remains our most costly self-inflicted disaster, but for how much longer?

Afghanistan

Sadly, 2,448 American soldiers died in 20 years of action in Afghanistan. More than 20,000 suffered any injuries, roughly 5,000 of those permanently disabling. Since 2013, we have averaged less than one field casualty per month. Nine deaths in 2020.

It was still a royal mess and failure. Billions of dollars and thousands of lives were lost.

Coronavirus Pandemic

Every two days 2,800 Americans are dying of COVID-19… again. 100,000 have suffered a long-term disability. More than 640,000 deaths in the United States, at least 300,000 of which have been classified as “avoidable” by epidemiologists. That’s a toll 100 times greater than the deaths in military action.

Comparing the Costs

We spent $1.8 to $2.3 trillion in Afghanistan, depending on how you calculate the “extra” spent during the operation versus anticipated military expenditures. We have spent $5.2 trillion on COVID at the various levels of government.

Choices We Make

Few of us really had a say in the anti-terrorism operations following September 11, 2001. We needed to eliminate terrorists’ training camps and communications infrastructure.

Even as a majority of U.S. voters and leaders might have agreed there was a need to secure the leaders of radical organizations, we can disagree on how these operations were conducted.

Coronavirus was simple, by comparison.

We, the entire U.S. population, can save lives and the economy by getting vaccinated and practicing safety protocols.

No leaders should have had to persuade us to wear masks, socially distance, isolate when appropriate, and get vaccinated once that was possible.

We are our own worst enemy.