We’ve spent $5 trillion on war over the past 15 years.
That’s what Brown University’s Institute for International and Public Affairs says.
They did a study and Military Times had an article on it on September 12.
Yep…13 days ago.
Didn’t hear about it?
Well gosh darn – why am I not surprised?
Do you think the corporations that control our government and buy our politicians would want the media organs they control to tell you that?
I don’t think so.
They want you to remain ignorant of this monumental waste of money.
And let’s be clear – this monumental waste of money isn’t just for the fighting.
The $5 trillion total “includes not only the costs of equipment and personnel in those countries,” the report tells us, “but also State Department spending to help local populations, Department of Homeland Security spending linked to the wars and Department of Veterans Affairs services that expanded as troops returned home.”
We know that it cost $1.7 trillion to directly wage war and the Pentagon wants $65 billion more for next year.
Our Defense Department’s base budget has increased by $733 billion because of these wars…and that when they already can’t account for $6.5 trillion.
Yeah, they just ‘lost’ the money.
On top of that we’ve spent $565 billion for the Department of Homeland Security.
The VA needs $1.2 trillion because of our twin wars, despite the fact that the VA can’t take care of veterans now.
It’s figured that it cost the country $462,000 each year for every soldier in Iraq.
How many college educations could that have bought?
But that’s not the real story, because “to control costs and avoid imposing a draft,” the US hired at least 100,000 private contractors to create a “parallel army.”
It’s figured that this parallel army cost us $12 million a day.
According to the Guardian’s report in 2013, the only advantage of this parallel army was to allow “the American people to be lulled into thinking that the Iraq war had cost them nothing.”
It’s figured that $60 billion was spent rebuilding Iraq after we blew it to hell, and $8 billion of that was simply lost to “corruption or waste.”
We also spent about $18 billion “on police training and civilian reconstruction projects in Iraq.”
Our national debt increased by $1.4 trillion because of the Iraq War alone.
That’s what Brown University’s Institute for International and Public Affairs says.
They did a study and Military Times had an article on it on September 12.
Yep…13 days ago.
Didn’t hear about it?
Well gosh darn – why am I not surprised?
Do you think the corporations that control our government and buy our politicians would want the media organs they control to tell you that?
I don’t think so.
They want you to remain ignorant of this monumental waste of money.
And let’s be clear – this monumental waste of money isn’t just for the fighting.
The $5 trillion total “includes not only the costs of equipment and personnel in those countries,” the report tells us, “but also State Department spending to help local populations, Department of Homeland Security spending linked to the wars and Department of Veterans Affairs services that expanded as troops returned home.”
We know that it cost $1.7 trillion to directly wage war and the Pentagon wants $65 billion more for next year.
Our Defense Department’s base budget has increased by $733 billion because of these wars…and that when they already can’t account for $6.5 trillion.
Yeah, they just ‘lost’ the money.
On top of that we’ve spent $565 billion for the Department of Homeland Security.
The VA needs $1.2 trillion because of our twin wars, despite the fact that the VA can’t take care of veterans now.
It’s figured that it cost the country $462,000 each year for every soldier in Iraq.
How many college educations could that have bought?
But that’s not the real story, because “to control costs and avoid imposing a draft,” the US hired at least 100,000 private contractors to create a “parallel army.”
It’s figured that this parallel army cost us $12 million a day.
According to the Guardian’s report in 2013, the only advantage of this parallel army was to allow “the American people to be lulled into thinking that the Iraq war had cost them nothing.”
It’s figured that $60 billion was spent rebuilding Iraq after we blew it to hell, and $8 billion of that was simply lost to “corruption or waste.”
We also spent about $18 billion “on police training and civilian reconstruction projects in Iraq.”
Our national debt increased by $1.4 trillion because of the Iraq War alone.
George W. Bush figured that it’d cost $60 billion to fight the Iraq War.
My, what an idiot.
And then we had Obama come onto the stage 8 years ago telling us he’d end the war.
Now, 8 years later, we have both Hillary and Trump telling us that it’ll continue.
“What choice do we have?” they tell us. “We have to defeat ISIS!”
If we never would have started the Iraq War we never would have created ISIS.
But that’s not quite true – that organization really came about with the Arab Spring and the Syrian War.
Both of those events were direct results of gas pipeline wars between the world’s global elite.
I mean, really…how’d the mess in Syria start?
We know Russia supplies Europe with 80% of their natural gas, and Europe resents this. So they decided to get a pipeline set up with Qatar. This would run from Qatar through Saudia Arabia into Jordan then Syria then Turkey and into Bulgaria.
Wouldn’t you know, Syria didn’t like this because Russia is a good friend of theirs going back to 1956 or so.
So they got the idea of working with Russia and Iran to get the Iran-Iraq-Syria to Greece pipeline built…which should have been done this year.
Well, hot damn, wouldn’t you know that’d lose money for the American corporations? Yes, the very same that brainwash you each night with the TV!
Thankfully, the Arab Spring started up and destabilized the whole region and it’s been that way ever since.
If it wasn’t for the greed of the American corporations and their puppet American government, we’d never have the Syrian civil war or the refugee crisis.
But we just couldn’t let that Russian gas keep going to Europe.
Our corporate American government is the problem.
And yet we continue to vote for D’s and R’s as if this will somehow change something.
It’s the same story with our broken healthcare system – we think the two parties that created the mess will be able to solve it.
My, are we dumb.
You can’t really blame the politicians when we Americans are really to blame.
Our ignorance and stupidity is what’s really at fault.
Personally, I knew the 2003 weapons of mass destruction claims were bullshit – many regular people in the world did.
And yet Americans let themselves be led along like sheep.
It’s easy when the corporate media organs that brainwash us tell us that everything is alright…to just trust them.
So we did, and now 15 years later we learn that it’s cost $5 trillion.
What do we have to show for it…besides the nearly 7,000 Americans that’ve died in those wars?
I guess the global elite have made a lot of money, expanded their power, and given themselves something to slap each other on the back about.
But what has it done for you and I?
I can’t think of anything, besides create animosity, distrust, and further divisions in this country.
And yet we continue to put up with it.
In a little over a month we’ll flock to the polls to vote, then sit around for the rest of the day congratulating ourselves on how good we’ve done, how patriotic we are.
But when all the confetti’s swept up and the final balloons are put in the trash…what is it that’ll have changed?
Maybe the name of the president, a few members of Congress, and a couple names you don’t recognize in the state.
Since they all take money from the same corporations and then set about doing their bidding, however, why does it matter?
It’s pretty depressing, this country we live in, and I don’t see that changing.
- Lots of older people are hell-bent on getting to retirement and to hell with everything else.
- Many younger people are so in debt that they have no choice but to do multiple jobs they hate, ignoring much else in the world.
- Our kids struggle in a test-based education system that leaves them clueless as to how the world operates.
- And our politicians feed off of it all, telling us things will get better – or even worse, that they’re great already – though deep down we know they’re lying, as they always have.
We’ve spent $5 trillion on war over the past 15 years.
This shows no signs of slowing down.
You and I don’t want it to.
Our actions make that clear.
