Friday, November 22nd, 2019
Stephan: When I read this story, even though I already knew its basic outlines, it left me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. $6.4 trillion, a number so large most people could not write it as a number, gone and where? Why most of it into the American war machine which for the past 17 years has been practically minting money in its facilities. What do we have to show for this? Why countries one after another trashed in the Middle East to a level of suffering it is very hard for Americans to comprehend.
All I could think of what else could have been done with that $6.4 trillion? how about: Universal healthcare. Elimination of student debt, and free college education. Childcare. Eldercare.
A boy watches a U.S. convoy on patrol in Syria, Oct. 31.
Credit: Delil Souleiman/AFP/ Getty
American taxpayers so far spent $6.4 trillion on costs related to and caused by post-9/11 wars and conflicts in more than 80 countries, according to a new report by the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University.
The big picture: The institute notes that because the conflicts have been largely paid for with deficit spending, their total cost will continue to rise from loan interest — even if the U.S. withdraws from major war zones by the end of fiscal year 2020. Ongoing care costs for veterans will also increase the eventual cost.
By the numbers: Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Pakistan — the longest war in U.S. history — has cost around $978 billion from fiscal year 2001 through fiscal year 2020, an average of $49 billion each year.
- Appropriations for the Iraq and Syria wars have totaled about $880 billion from 2003 through 2020, averaging $44 […]
All this while we Social Security “victims” are suffering from inadequate funding which means we remain below the poverty line, especially if we are disabled and need money for medications we cannot afford. The Military-Industrial-Banking complex has really made this country into an oligarchy. Democracy is now defunct in the USA, as this story is part of the proof of.