$1 Trillion for Wars Makes No Sense By Any Measure

[laststeamtrain]

Mary Zerkel
(National Coordinator of the Eyes Wide Open and Cost of War programs within the American Friends Service Committee)
Posted: May 25, 2010 04:16 PM



$1 Trillion for Wars Makes No Sense By Any Measure


<snip>

This May 30 at 10:06 a.m., we will reach another dubious milestone in our almost nine years of war. At that precise moment, we will have spent $1 trillion in operational costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, tracked by the National Priorities Project's cost of war counter.

<snip>

Of course, most Americans don't earn $1 million a year. In fact 9.9 percent earn nothing because they are unemployed. It's a shame that we have wasted that $1 trillion on war, rather than on a WPA-style program to repair our roads and bridges that could have hired those 15.3 million people out of work for $50,000 apiece. And on top of that, we would still have had a cool $235 billion left over to invest in clean energy, producing 3.9 million green jobs while reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, according to a study by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Many such tradeoffs exist, tantalizing us with what could have been. For instance, with that $1 trillion we could have given 4-year scholarships at state universities to the 2 million freshmen currently enrolled - and do the same thing again in each of the next 23 years. Or we could have provided the estimated 500,000 homeless families across the U.S. with affordable housing - and done that each year for the next 17 years.

In other words, $1 trillion has the potential to completely wipe out major domestic social problems that desperately need funding as we cope with the effects of the great recession.

<snip>

Congress is on the verge of approving yet another "emergency" war spending supplemental, this time for $34 billion to pay for the escalation of troops in Afghanistan. Last weekend (May 22-23) for the first time the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan surpassed those in Iraq. We're winding down one misguided conflict only to accelerate another. And we're doing so with borrowed money. For generations we will be paying the price of these wars with a diminished capacity to respond to the needs of people and communities in our own country.

<snip>

The human and economic cost of the wars cannot be separated. In yet another sad convergence, we will reach this $1 trillion milestone on Memorial Day weekend. There is no way to quantify the tragedy of the lost lives of the U.S. soldiers and countless Iraqi and Afghan civilians. Each dollar spent on the wars not only was diverted from peaceful, productive projects, but also contributed to these lives lost. That is the greatest tragedy of all.

<more>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-zerkel/1-trillion-for-wars-makes_b_589262.html

[RandomThoughts]

1. It could be about purpose.

To establish a just social order, construction and peaceful means works well, since if people are not in oppression or poverty they are not as warlike usually. But scarcity systems make that difficult.

So the oppression and domination doctrines often have war as a component, since there is a resistance to 1 to 1000 rule. A system that is more just has a wide spread base of people decentralized to take care of situations before they become bad.

[Oregone]

2. Would war make more sense if it were free?

[flamingdem]

3. We can't afford war. End of story. nt

[DrDan]

4. it could also be used to build 80 new schools in each state and

staff them for 30 years.

And if I remember correctly, fix all identified bridge problems throughout the U.S. . . . and still have enough left over for many many school constructions and staffings.

But instead . . .

[ixion]

5. 'war' never makes sense. It is illogical at the core. That said, we're not at 'war'

we're engaged in an on-going Turkey Shoot.

[Macoy]

6. The Opportunity Cost of War

Whatever the issue, budget problems in California, under funded schools, Social Security, health care, unemployment, homeless, the mortgage crisis, you name it, I find myself thinking ….”wow, the war money could solve this problem easily”.

As sad as the human cost of the wars is, it is even sadder to think what good might have come about if we spent the money on problems here.

/as a Trekie, I vote we spend the full 1 Trillion on space travel…....I want my starship!!!



Macoy

[Enthusiast]

7. If we stop the wars

that one trillion Dollars won't be going to the right people.

[ShortnFiery]

8. Exactly! The executives within the MIC are more worthy ...

than all those "little people" within the Educational and Health Care Systems. :silly:

[bulloney]

9. We're fightin' them over there so we don't have to fight 'em here. Didn't you get the memo?

It's absolutely pathetic how you have to fight like crazy for any type of funding for the overall good of the people of this country. But the millitary industrial complex gets a blank check with no questions asked.