You forgot the cost of the war in Iraq:
According to the Center for Defense Information, the estimated cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will reach $1.29 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2011.
(Estimated War-Related Costs, Iraq and Afghanistan - Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933935.)
You also forgot the cost of veterans benefits attributable to both wars.
You failed to deal with the problem that overall the federal budget spends $1.4 trillion which it does not have. So the problem is not eliminating $119 from the alleged cost of the war in Afghanistan but to eliminate $1.4 trillion overall.
We can afford our “empire” if we cut back on social programs and other domestic spending.
We cannot form a consensus in this country to extend the Bush tax cuts, do you really think you are going to cut Social Security and Medicare and not touch the defense budget? We have got to find $.40 of every dollar spent and the defense budget is logically and politically high on the list to be cut. Ronald Reagan himself were he did come back to the Oval Office in January 2013 could not do otherwise and expect to keep his hold on Congress or be reelected.
Our war in Afghanistan is necessary to defend our national interests
Please demonstrate how killing a few fanatical primitives in Afganistan keeps us safe from terror attacks in the Homeland. You might also explain how Irak has made us safer. The ghost of an Osama bin Laden rejoices every day that he sucked us into Iraq and Afghanistan and prays to his distorted notion of God that we continue to pour blood and treasure into the sands of those countries. The mullahs of Iran who have won the war in Iraq join him five times a day in those prayers.
You are assuming the issue in debate which is nearly as weak a debating tactic as the ad hominem, ( "You are obviously a liberal." ) So you have sadly indulged in both.
