Who Benefits, National Security

What

     is National Security?

What risks terrorize my country?

2,977 people died on September 11. This resulted in two wars, bringing to date nearly 4,500 troop casualties in Iraq and 1,530 fatalities in Afghanistan. Citizens are subject to invasive searches (from the refusal of a bottle of water to explicit scanners) and diminished privacy rights (PATRIOT Act) in the United States. These are under the banner of National Security.
Troops in Libya are there in the name of National Security or National Interest. Whose interest is that?

This is in my personal interest: "[M]ore than 910,000 Americans still die of heart disease annually," more than 300 times the number of casualties on 9/11. Yet, there has been minimal assistance for those who cannot afford their own health care.
It is in my interest that I can afford to visit the doctor, that I can then also afford the prescribed medicine, much more than my peers going around the world to hold the US thumb over dictators that pose a risk to so-called National Security.

I have never been convinced of what is being made secure. Over 311,000,000 people in my country live day-to-day, most of us doing what we can to scrape by, especially in this "economic crisis." And in this crisis there has surfaced much talk about budget cuts at the cost of schools, teachers, union workers, and benefits for those giving their time daily to the progression of this nation. These people must be made secure.

"Unless we act soon, government spending on health and retirement programs will crowd out spending on everything else, including national security." Senator Paul Ryan, Republican, Wisconsin.

I contend that the health and retirement of US citizens is National Security. The problem falls in that politicians hold the Nation and the citizens who are the nation, who build the nation, who turn the wheels of this nation, separate. The problem is that US funds are spent on international endeavors, rather than beneficial programs (alternative fuels, health care for citizens, schools and libraries, et al) at home. The problem may even be this country's lack of neighborly patriotism, the fact flags go up on Flag Day and at war time, but that when schools are funded, medicine is paid for, libraries get new books, the nation does not celebrate.

This is a challenge for Americans to celebrate each other, not the politicians who dress nicely, pass out gratuitous handshakes, and spend our money on "National Security." This is a call to recognize that we are the nation and want to be secure here in our own welfare. This must change, this distraction called National Security that our taxes pay for while we slowly die at home from things we could prevent if we could afford them. I don't want a government that stands up for me as though I have made friends with the class bully. I want a government that stands with me, like a best friend who waits with me at the hospital when I break my arm after a spill on my bike. But as long as National Security is separate from We the People, my government is not for me.