Four Trillion Dollars

The US has, so far, spent in excess of four (4) trillion dollars on the Afghan and Iraqi wars in the last 10 years. Four Trillion Dollars. that’s $4,000,000,000,000.00 in numeric values. It is a mind boggling cost for two wars that have, in essence, failed. Afghanistan is not really better off than it was before the war and neither is Iraq. Sure, Sadam Husain was deposed, Bin laden killed, and the Taliban ousted. But conditions have become worse for the average Afghani and Iraqi citizens. Only a handful few have benefited from these wars. 4 trillion dollars is the value of the lives of 6,051 US soldiers, 2,300 contractors, 18,000 members of the Iraqi and Afghan security forces, 3,520 Pakistani soldiers, and the number to trump them all, 137,000 civilians. All killed because of these two meaningless wars.

4 Trillion dollars distributed evenly among the entier population of the wolrd of 6,775,235,700 would have given everyone of us $590.

4 Trillion dollars that could have been used to fight poverty, to fight diseases like aids and cancer, to feed the entire world many times over.

4 trillion dollars that could have been used to educate, instead of kill, Afghani and Iraqi children, which would have been a better way to bring on the deposition of both the Taliban and Husain.

4 trillion dollars that could have been spent to bring peace to the Middle East.

4 trillion dollars that could have been invested in researching alternative energy sources.

4 trillion dollars that could have gotten us to Mars and back many times over.

Instead, we got two failed wars that had no strategy, no specific objective, and a plethora of lies, deceit and subterfuge. Two wars that helped propagate the 2009 financial crisis. Money well spent? More like a waste. And now the money holders are terrified and forcing governments, like Greece, to cut down on essential social programs.

Meanwhile more people continue to die. More soldiers come back home with barley adequate support. Afghanistan is falling apart and looks likely to be overrun by the Taliban all over again. Al-Qaida still exists even without Bin laden. Iraq is about to fall in to further chaos. The poor keep getting poorer while the few who benefited from these wars get richer.

This is Bush legacy. 4 trillion dollars is the cost of 137,000 dead civilians.