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-- Wars Cost $4 TRILLION!!
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Wars Cost $4 TRILLION!!
We lost 3,000 people on September 11 and have killed 137,000 innocent civilians in foreign countries since then in response. Why does this not make sense? Just judging by the numbers, it would appear that the United States is exponentially more dangerous than Al-Qaeda ever was. 137,000 isn't even the full casualty figure which doesn't count the lives ruined, families uprooted, refugees, physical and mental disorders, etc. It's pathetic. China is rising and here we are wasting away in shit hole third world countries.
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A new report out of Brown University estimates that the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq--together with the counterinsurgency efforts in Pakistan--will, all told, cost $4 trillion and leave 225,000 dead, both civilians and soldiers.
The group of economists, anthropologists, lawyers, humanitarian personnel, and political scientists involved in the project estimated that the cost of caring for the veterans injured in the wars will reach $1 trillion in 30 or 40 years. In estimating the $4 trillion total, they did not take into account the $5.3 billion in reconstruction spending the government has promised Afghanistan, state and local contributions to veteran care, interest payments on war debt, or the costs of Medicare for veterans when they reach 65.
The Congressional Budget Office, meanwhile, has assessed the federal price tag for the wars at $1.8 trillion through 2021. The report says that is a gross underestimate, predicting that the government has already paid $2.3 trillion to $2.7 trillion.
More than 6,000 U.S. troops and 2,300 contractors have died since the wars began after Sept. 11. A staggering 550,000 disability claims have been filed with the VA as of 2010. Meanwhile, 137,000 civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq have died in the conflict. (Injuries among U.S. contractors have also not yet been made public, further complicating the calculations of cost.) Nearly 8 million people have been displaced. Check out Reuters' factbox breaking down the costs and casualties here.
Perhaps the most sobering conclusion of the researchers is that it's unclear whether the human and economic costs are worth it. Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden are now dead, and the Taliban is marginalized, but Iraq and Afghanistan are far from being stable democracies. Meanwhile, the half a percentage point a year in GDP growth the war has fueled has been offset by the enormous increase in the national deficit, the report says.
"We decided we needed to do this kind of rigorous assessment of what it cost to make those choices to go to war," study co-director Catherine Lutz told Reuters. "Politicians, we assumed, were not going to do that kind of assessment."
The researchers recommend that the U.S. government be more transparent in disclosing the costs of its wars to taxpayers, by including the costs of future health care for veterans, the cost of paying interest on debt taken out to fund the wars, and estimating how much state and local governments take on in war costs. You can see their recommendations here.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout...-130934180.html
Ask Kevin.
move to politics por favor.
No, its much more entertaining to argue with idiots here.
Every thread ever in PDD turns into some stupid Israel vs. Palestine shit thats boring, thats why people started posting PDD content here because those tards are too stupid to come here.
Hey, it's their fault for not embracing freedom.
I felt this was an interesting read:
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/...merican-empire/
I'm open to hearing critiques on what is cited there.
War, HUH, good god y'all!
Shit's ridiculous. That money could have bought so many more hi-tech bombs instead!
I guess freedom isn't free.
Also, isn't Obama supposed to be this brilliant fucking economist? What a douche.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Joss Weatherby No, its much more entertaining to argue with idiots here. Every thread ever in PDD turns into some stupid Israel vs. Palestine shit thats boring, thats why people started posting PDD content here because those tards are too stupid to come here. |
Imagine what could have been done with $4 trillion!!!!! Free education AND healthcare. These things wouldn't even cost $1 trillion. I'm disgusted.
Interesting read, but sadly most Americans are now more concerned with their Call of Duty kill count.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by enydo any topic any time NOU IS THERE |
just think about how many killer robot soldiers could have been bought with that 4 trillion
$4 trillion is the cost of 1 Obama budget. Food for thought.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by ChemEnhanced just think about how many killer robot soldiers could have been bought with that 4 trillion |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Syntonic I guess freedom isn't free. Also, isn't Obama supposed to be this brilliant fucking economist? What a douche. |
Freedom from fear maybe? It wouldn't have looked great if 3,000+ people were killed and the US didn't do anything about it. Since 9/11 there haven't been any major terrorist attacks on the US. If the US hadn't gone to war, I would imagine the "average" American, especially those in large cities, would be living in fear of another attack.
I think "freedom" in this case could be synonymous with safety or security. To be free from aggressors. In the Revolutionary war it was freedom from tyranny, the current wars are freedom from terror and from the fear of being attacked again.
I'm sure in the case of Pearl Harbor, you would agree that it was justified that the US go to war with Japan, no? How is this so different aside from Japan being a formal military attacking a military base instead of a terrorist group attacking civilians?
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Domesticated Freedom from what? Some--idiotic--Americans love using this word as justification for their nation's antics. How the fuck has this war had any effect on the freedom of the average US citizen? What effect would no war have had on the freedom of the average US citizen? I'll help you out, genius. The answer to both questions is NONE. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Syntonic Wow, next time I'll let you know I'm joking. Geez. It seems as though you were waiting to rage. To make you feel better, I totally with you and everyone else on this matter. I've been damn opposed to this circus we call a justification of liberty or freedom around when Bush was prez. Being an American I'm quite ashamed of my country and it's high percentage of people that don't care or people who just don't get it. |
I don't not like freedom. I dislike the fact we pry into other countries matters rather than try to solve our own. America is like a war addict that can't admit it has a problem.
The companies profiting from that spending have more say in this than the actual government imo. So yes it's a large number, yes the money could have been spent better elsewhere, but as corporations do you really thing they're going to admit that instead of going to war?
Yeah you're right. Private corporations have more to do with the US going to war than the US government does. Obama is also actually a robot that was programmed to function as president, but is actually being controlled remotely from a bunker under North Dakota.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by srussell0018 Yeah you're right. Private corporations have more to do with the US going to war than the US government does. Obama is also actually a robot that was programmed to function as president, but is actually being controlled remotely from a bunker under North Dakota. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by srussell0018 Yeah you're right. Private corporations have more to do with the US going to war than the US government does. |
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