Today, the Pentagon released its budget request for next year, $1.5T. In addition, to being the largest US military budget request ever, it also represents a 40% increase year-to-year from this year’s military budget. In addition to this request there is in a $200B supplemental budget request that was made last month to cover initial Iran war expenses. The Whitehouse announced that it would seek a 10% cut in non-Defense spending to balance these budget increases. Read major cuts to “daycare, Medicaid, Medicare”. All to pay for a war that no one wanted.

Today, we went to the botanical gardens. The weather was warm and the garden was crowded. Afterwards, we went looking for some late lunch on South Grand. The odd hour and quite a few closings left little to choose from. We settled on the Taste of Persia. We decided to share an entree, but each added a beverage, mango lassi, plus we added lamb flavored rice. Muhammad, our server, comped us with their normal white rice, so that we could taste that too. When he came back to ask us how our food was, Anne asked him if he had any relatives in Iran.

He said that he had two daughters, but one of them died when the US bombed the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, at the beginning of the war. She didn’t attend the school but lived in an adjoining home. We felt awful and awkwardly offered him our condolences. But what can you say to assuage such grief? At the end of our meal, we asked for a to-go box for all the rice. He brought the box and also a topping sauce that we added to the box. We apologized again for our country. He absolved us with, “What can you do?”

1. The print with this post shows how the news was reported in Japan back then. The graphics look cartoonish, by today’s standards. But in a country where most people were illiterate, this is how people got the news then.