I've been thinking about the previous post "The Second Fake Ending of the Iraq War". What I realize is that the Iraq War is over and has been over for some time. That much is true. The phase we are in now is 'occupation'. We continue to occupy Iraq, with 50,000 troops, and probably another 50,000 private contractors, etc. It is not a peaceful occupation exactly, but it's not 'hot' war either.
How long will we occupy Iraq in this fashion? My guess is for a very long time, given the fairly strategic location of Iraq. The cost of this occupation? Certainly many, many billions of dollars. I just saw that the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the war and its aftermath (occupation) will cost over one trillion dollars by 2017.
And what do we gain in return? Yes, what do we gain...that's a good question which no one seems to be interested in talking about. For what exactly will we have spent a trillion dollars? Not to speak of all the lives destroyed and seriously damaged, both American, allied, and Iraqi.
More and more commentators are admitting the Iraq War was all a big mistake... premised on lies and misunderstandings. Yes, yes, I know, a vicious dictator was removed, and a semblance of democracy created. That seems to be the answer as to why. Our national mission in life seems to be to remove dictators everywhere and spread democracy to every land. Wonder if the Founders would have approved of that?
Now we're doing it again two countries over in Afghanistan. Invasion, 'putting down' the insurgency, occupation, building a 'democracy'. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and private contractors. Billions more dollars being spent. Many thousands more people, militants and innocent civilians alike, being killed and maimed by our amazing military machine.
Meanwhile, the economy of the US continues to implode, with millions of people out of work, public debt exploding, federal, state, and local budgets shrinking, the standard of living for the average person declining, the political pot boiling because many people are enraged and striking out at any nearby political target.
But the merry American empire goes on as if nothing is wrong. Is there no connection here? Doesn't this huge military establishment we have built take away from other things we need? Doesn't every tank or plane we build mean that we can't build a new train system or a school or keep our budget in balance? Of course that's what it means. Our military is simply the biggest government program around, beloved for some reason by anti-government Conservatives and tax-hating Republicans. We can't afford it, but we're going to do it anyway.
Let's see, what country can we invade next? Who wants to be free?
It's not that we can't afford it, we can not even begin to pinpoint where the 700 billion plus dollars spent on defense is going, on an annual basis. (They've NEVER passed an budgetary audit since such records began to be compiled... let you or I fail ONE!??!) Obviously, some things are a matter of national security, but we have so little oversight over the Pentagon budget that it borders on being illegal. I thought we got out of the nation building business years ago (pun intended), which is obviously the intent in Iraq and to a must less successful extent, in Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteTo many ultra conservative groups in Washington and abroad, it makes sense to build more bombs than homeless shelters for our own domestic poor; drones are way more profitable than health insurance for the marginalized or food for the insecure. Thousands of books have been written on the downfall of Rome, but I do believe that a failure in domestic policy is a reoccurring theme. I don't mind paying taxes, as long as my daughter can get help if she needs it. I could care less if some tribal faction, whose been fighting longer than than the US ever thought of being, continues to fight.... bitter, yeah! Let's get the hell out of there and start taking care of our own! And, let's not waste jargon on war/freedom (say, illusion) makes us all safer... who gives a rip if you can't get a job or put food on your table to feed your kids!