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TechnoratiAdding Up the True Costs of Two Wars
Last week the U.S. "stood down" in Iraq, finalizing the pullout of 140,000 troops from Iraqi cities and towns -- the first step on the long path home. After more than six years, most Americans are war-weary, even though a smaller percentage of us have been involved in the actual fighting than in any major conflict in U.S. history.
But not so fast. The conflict that began in 2003 is far from over for us, and the next chapter -- confronting a Taliban that reasserted itself in Afghanistan while the U.S. was sidetracked in Iraq -- will be expensive and bloody. The death toll for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan reached 5,000 in June. An additional 80,000 Americans have been wounded or injured since the war in Iraq began. More than 300,000 of our troops have required medical treatment, and Army statistics show that more than 17 percent of our returning soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, even though most of the population has long told pollsters they can't wait for U.S. forces to leave, U.S. officials have said we are likely to station 50,000 troops at military bases in the country for the foreseeable future. This is because the situation in Iraq is highly precarious.
Moreover, the U.S. barely has begun to face the enormous financial bill for the war. By our accounting, the U.S. has already spent $1 trillion on operations and related defense spending, with more to come -- and it will cost perhaps $2 trillion more to repay the war debt, replenish military equipment and provide care and treatment for U.S. veterans back home. Many of the wounded will require indefinite care for brain and spinal injuries. Disability payments are ramping up and will grow higher for decades. The stress of extended, multiple tours to Iraq means that a whole generation of U.S. military men and women may now be suffering from long-term mental health issues. The suicide rate in the Army is at its highest level since record-keeping began.
This wartime spending undoubtedly has been a major contributor to our present economic collapse. The U.S. has waged an expensive war as if it required little or no economic sacrifice, funding the conflict by massive borrowing. As we've observed in the past, you can't spend $3 trillion on a reckless foreign war and not feel the pain at home.
Burned by the difficulties in Iraq, our political leaders have no illusions about the length and difficulty of the challenge facing us in Afghanistan. But in other respects we seem set to repeat the same mistakes that we made in Iraq. The president has just signed yet another "emergency" supplemental appropriations measure ($80 billion) to fund continuing operations in Iraq and expansion into Afghanistan. This means that for the 30th time since 2001, war spending has been rushed through the budget process without serious scrutiny.
Obstacles continue to beset returning veterans too. Despite an increase in the Department of Veterans Affairs budget, the backlog of disability claims has reached its highest level.
Early this year, President Barack Obama committed 20,000 troops to a "surge" in Afghanistan. That, combined with a large, ongoing presence in Iraq and continued reliance on private contractors for virtually every aspect of military support, remains a recipe for staggering out-of-control expenditures. Surely we can draw some lessons from the Iraq debacle and set aside money to care for our veterans, crack down on fraud and profiteering, and account for the true costs of the war in the budget so the American taxpayer can see what we are paying for.
28 Comments so far
Show All"The stress of extended, multiple tours to Iraq means that a whole generation of U.S. military men and women may now be suffering from long-term mental health issues. The suicide rate in the Army is at its highest level since record-keeping began."
Maintaining the US dollar monopoly on the sale of oil is critical to the Fed’s ability to print money, without sending the greenback into oblivion. Sadly, many will die or suffer for the rest of their lives to keep the printing presses operating for the benefit of the few who are reaping most of the benefits.
As long as WE praise the mercenaries who kill the innocent in the name of EMPIRE for OIL we will have more and more "conflicts". NO, they are not keeping us safe, and no, they are not protecting our freedoms. Gulf of Tonkin, 911, both false flag black-ops. So called justifications for war are nothing but lies engineered by our CIA to further empire. Sit back and enjoy while the treasury is raped.
It's much too early to count the true costs of currently ongoing U.S. wars. A lot will depend on discussions of international monetary "adjustments" that have yet to be concluded. And a lot more will depend on human reactions that are seldom taken into account by the imperial accountants who now provide the estimates.
"... stood down ..."
Hey, check that!
Moving the troops outside of town IN IRAQ does NOT mean "stood down."
In at least some cases, they did not even move the troops; they just redrew city boundaries.
That includes Baghdad.
Why use the word "surge," even in quotes, for the escalation in Afghanistan? A surge suggests lower levels before and after.
On top of that, let's not forget Pakistan. US drones are killing people in Pakistan, too.
My compliments to Stiglitz & Bilmes, and my thanks for their good work here and in their excellent Three Trillion Dollar War, but I am impressed again to see that people can work hard and put lots of things together and still come wa-a-ay short of stating the enormity of the crime.
The war industry has put a great deal of thought into branding their product and framing the language of public debate around it. It behooves those who do not accept their actions or assumptions to reset the language as we go.
They are NOT standing down.
There is NO withdrawal.
The front extends to 3 countries, not 2, and that's not even counting some small excursions into Jordan.
I feel Joe Biden was corporate America's choice to watch Obama and make sure he didn't get any liberal ideas while in office. Meanwhile it's business as usual as the middle class is funding a small percentage of the elite class who allegedly manufacture weapons and supply mercenaries at an exorbitant cost to keep us safe from some mysterious terrorists hiding in a cave somewhere.
Unfortunately too many Americans still believe the corporate line that our security is better handled by a handful of bureaucrats chosen for us by Big Oil and defence contractors. In reality American politicians rank as some of the most ignorant politicians in the world when it comes to foreign issues. I know. I‘ve met many of them and it scares me how clueless the vast majority are. The only thing the politicians are deft at, is delivering rhetoric.
In the meantime America’s real security issues such as universal healthcare, urban violence, the largest incarcerated population in the world, the erosion of our manufacturing base and decreasing wages for the working and middle class are ignored by the Mainstream media and our political puppets.
The numbers quoted by Joseph Stiglitz (like the 3 trillion spent so far on the unnecessary wars of aggression) are never mentioned by CNN, FOX or any other corporate media outlet. Instead we’re told about how much a basketball player makes or how much a celebrity spent on a dress or car. We are constantly redirected to news that we supposedly crave for like M.J.’s funeral arrangements or another missing white girl.
Once the majority of Americans make the connection between our military spending, our taxes and everything else that is sacrificed in the name of the war on terror, both the Democrats and Republicans will hopefully disappear from the election process forever.
"Surely we can draw some lessons from the Iraq debacle"
Sure sure, now would you please hand me back my 2010 Lexus brochure? I wanna mePhone too!! And a new ice cream flavor!
Deepa
Two US "wars" (read: invasions) are soon going to become THREE WARS, as the US' and the west's satellite country, Israel, is preparing to bomb Iran.
According to www.globalresearch.ca,
"The Israel Air Force is planning to participate in aerial exercises in the US and Europe in the coming months.
"It is believed pilots will be trained for long-range flights as a precautionary measure against possible Iranian attacks and in test-runs for potential strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
"IAF planes will take part in a joint aerial exercise with NATO forces in Europe and the US.
"On Sunday, US Vice-President, Joe Biden, told ABC television the US would not stand in the way militarily if the Israelis decided they needed to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.
He said: "The US cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do. Israel can determine for itself - it's a sovereign nation - what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else."
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would prefer to see Iran's nuclear program stopped through diplomacy, but has not ruled out a military strike."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
index.php?context=va&aid=14257
"Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli warplanes flying over the kingdom in any raid on Iran's nuclear sites, The Sunday Times said in a report denied by Israel.
"Citing diplomatic sources, it said the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence service had assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Saudi Arabia has tacitly agreed to the use of its airspace.
"The Sunday Times said Mossad director Meir Dagan had held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility.
"The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of Israel and Saudi Arabia," it quoted a diplomatic source as saying.
"Israel and Saudi Arabia have no formal diplomatic relations but Mossad has "working relations" with the Saudis, the newspaper added, citing an Israeli defence source."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
index.php?context=va&aid=14245
/
Vice President Biden is a world class IDIOT, and a AIPAC stooge. The United States had better NOT send signals to Tel Aviv that it will go along with an Israeli illegal attack on Iran............Israeli has already committed War Crimes in Gaza, and has had the support of the United States.
The United States must distance itself from these War Crimes. The U.S. must CLEARLY disavowel any support for an illegal attack against Iran. This would be the beginning of WWIII.
.
Here's the problem:
A huge number of our fellow American citizens - the majority, I think it's called - will never, ever see this piece, and never, ever hear the real numbers and hard facts on the ground.
I bet you - you could "Jaywalk" anywhere in the country and not find two men-in-the-street aware of any of the above truths.
After 8 years, you'd think our side would have found ways to communicate better and more widely... that's the problem...
Actually neither Congress, the President,The Budget Office or the Pentagon have made a systematic calculation of the long term costs associated with the care of Veterans of these wars in which the proportion of wounded to killed is serveral times higher than in any other previous war. Nor have any specific taxes been designated to pay for this care, or the war itself; it's all rolled onto the national debt. Meanwhile, of course, the cost of vital programs like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security as well as EPA and OSHA, Housing initiatives, public transportation, water and sewage treatment upgrades and even environmental initiatives will be attacked to control "the red ink", while "tax breaks" repeatedly go through as "vital economic stimulus- not payroll tax cuts mind you, tax cuts for people making more than $350,000, or reaping the benefits of low capital gains rates.
The Veterans Administration itself is in deep trouble so that even if you poured billions more into it it is doubtful that much would "trickle-down" to the Veteran's themselves. see
Vets Under Siege; How America Decieves and Dishonors Those Who Fight Our Battles" by Martin Schram; Thomas Dunne Books, N.Y. 2008
It would be convenient to allow the VA to go under. That way, they can prove that the government can't run anything; thus, it would be foolish to expect a "government-run" health care system for all.
As long as the wars are privatized and made "volunteer", our apathetic public will never care to know the true costs of war. I remember when my boyfriend, later my husband, used to love serving and fighting. I was not sure that going to Vietnam was a great idea but I didn't mind his style. It was only after he lost his limbs and had undergone years of mental agony that I wished I were bold enough to beg him not to go. It took a long time to get rid of his giving up life mentality but now it has come back after he nearly died of getting poisoned twice by a doctor who I have taken to court. Even when soldiers do make it back from wars, their positive approach to solving life's problems is weakened or even destroyed altogether. Judging by what my husband went through when he was a Marine in Vietnam, it's as if the military holds self-esteem ransom. It's there if you keep serving for the criminal politicians and supposedly gone when you leave the military. I thought that my family, his family, and I were successful in getting my husband out of mental depression from war but last month, I had to find out the hard way that the costs only keep coming back and forth. Multiply this cost by plenty more returning soldiers and see what you get. When I look at what my husband went through in Vietnam, I feel sad that our younger soldiers are going through the same or even worse. I wish them well and I hope many can live to help us fight back and train our current and future generations out of signing up for wars like these. My husband learned so much the hard way but I don't want to have to see our younger ones end up in the same boat.
P.S.: I feel sad that I have to post for my husband who normally posts here this userid. I generally don't feeling like posting but this article and Obama's censoring health care reformists pushed me to let it out. :(
I am sorry about your husband and all the sorrow you both have had to take as the REAL price for what he thought was 'service to country'.
we are adult enough to know such things happen where we make decisions based on beliefs and even faith - and patriotism - and such things are the result.
i do not know when people will understand - right from childhood as they are brought up by families - what claus von clausewitz , or maybe it was ludwig mises - (former was the war theoretician your husband should know from training, latter an economist and historian) --
"Foreign wars are NEVER supported by the Moneyed Classes unless there is a profit to be made...such wars are always planned, instigated and executed by the Moneyed Classes INDEPENDENT of the interests of the domestic population..they are in truth also Wars AGAINST the domestic populace and are domestic politics by other means".
OR GENERAL SMEDLEY BUTLER, US MArines - in 1933 speeches after decades of "service" "to our BIG BOSS - our supernationalistic capitalism"
:"OUR FOREIGN POLICY HAS ALWAYS BEEN GEARED TOWARDS gathering as much of the world's resources unto ourselves at the expense of others......the TRUE purpose of our armed forces is to make the world safe for Capitalism and our Cultural and Economic Assault....it has nothing to do with freedom or democracy or justice or fairness....it is just a RACKET by our Big Money, Big Corporations, Big Finance , Big Banks...and our Chamber of Commerce ....their Big Brains....people who identify threats to our will to be destroyed have their Big Muscle -- our Military ..and I was its Chief Enforcer in 3 continents...we are a nation of war Racketeers and Predators.....you can huzzah it, you can have parades about it, you can wrap it in the flag of the USA but war is nothing but Murder in Uniform....it is EVIL and I will have nothing to do more with it....i believe in a strong defense - no more than 500 miles around our coasts and no further meddling in the affairs of other regions.......
"the trouble with US AMERICANS is : if our Dollar can not buy more than 6 % of value at home -- we want to go abroad so it can by 100 % -- and where the DOLLAR GOES -- our flag follows, where the flag goes, our soldiers and army go".
OR in interviews in 2008/09 Former CIA Economic Hitman John Perkins revealed:
"we are an empire -the largest the world has known -- and we have gotten away with building this empire through Manipulation, TOrture, assassinations, blackmail, covert and over wars, fomenting instabilities against uncooperative governments....if none of the first methods: blackmail, bribery, support, fomenting rebellions, economically undermining - work - THAT"s when we send in our ARMY -that's what you saw in vietnam and that's what you are seeing in the middle east..i was PART of that project of building empire to first undermine economies to become our PERMANENT subjects".
"What most americans do not realize or understand is: we are ONLY living our lifestyles ONLY BECAUSE it is part of a VERY, VERY vicious system of exploitation that Dehumanizes and Enslaves people Everywhere".
John Perkins - former CIA "economic hitman"
"Surely we can draw some lessons from the Iraq debacle and set aside money to care for our veterans, crack down on fraud and profiteering, and account for the true costs of the war in the budget so the American taxpayer can see what we are paying for."
Yes we can draw some lessons from this. The first is that it is hard to hear anything over the screams of fanatic's on both sides screaming their usual "Empire" or "Keep America Safe."
The second lesson is that we must pay attention to the Congress.
The third is that no American kid should shed their blood because chicken hawks or plain chickens are in charge. One is as dangerous as the other.
The fourth is that you cannot have selective compliance.
It would be nice if we could choose our duties and obligations, but we can't. None of what we enjoy is free. Even if some don't undestand they enjoy things denied to most people.
I believe Tirebiter summed it up nicely.
So Henry8 how are we to designate a nation that has more than 1000 military bases in 132 countries and spends over a trillion bucks a year to run the whole shebang? Current military spending of the US exceeds that of all the other nations in the world combined! This in a country that has a federal deficit of $11 trillion and counting and depends on China, Japan and oil emirates to buy $2 billion daily of US bonds and T bills. And building a billion dollar embassy in the Green zone of Bhagdad--world's largest ever to accomodate a reported staff of 5,000 behind a heavily fortified city within a city. Haven't heard, but seems doubtful that US troops or mercenaries ala Blackwater have withdrawn from that part of Bhagdad. When Paul Brehmer, one of Henry Kissinger's team, was proconsul in Iraq, he issued 99 edicts that instantly became Iraqi law. And now the big O is going to build another huge embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. Looks like classical extensions of empire but on a scale never seen before in history and unlikely to ever be done again. If there's another term in the language to concisely cover such behaviors and many others, do let us all know.
Henry8 can speak for himself, but I think you exaggerate the number of US military bases around the world. The latest number I've seen is around 750 or so - which is bad enough - and depending of course on how you define a military 'base'. I of course could be wrong. Any source for your estimate?
Otherwise, hyperbole as such is often targeted by warhawks to diminish the otherwise strong points of your argument.
Agreed, accuracy is important. My base source was Chalmers Johnson in The Sorrows of Empire, chapter 6 titled "The Empire of Bases". He cites the Pentagon's Base Structure Report listing of 725 foreign bases noting that it lists only bases if they are larger than 10 acres and a plant replacement value of greater than $10 million. This listing, note, is foreign, not those in the US and it's facilities on Trust Territories in the Pacific, of which there are many. Nor does it include the strategic missile bases, the weapons that could devastate the planet if ever used. About 220 of these multiple warhead history ending devices are located, for example, where Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado meet, though most residents of the area are quite oblivious of their menacing presence--too busy with American Idol or is it Wheel of Fortune. Conveniently not counting these facilities which carry the destructive incinerating power/force thousands of times larger than all the conventional explosives used in WWII, is a considerable oversight---or is it? Then there are black sites, presumably covered in the Pentagon's multi-billion dollar black budget.
Johnson also notes "The United States operates so many overseas espionage bases that Michael Moran of NBC News once suggested, "Today, one could throw a dart at a map of the world and it would likely land within a few hundred miles of a quietly established U.S. intelligence-gathering operation . . .America's surveillance network has grown so vast and formidable that in some respects it is feared as much as US weaponry itself."
So, as with other things, it all depends on how you count and who is doing the counting and what is secret and unlisted. But adding where the devastating firepower lies in wait atop intercontinental missiles seems appropriate, even if the Pentagon doesn't. Thus 1,000 would seem a round number but nevertheless low. The true extent of the US military operations is mind boggling and an outfit that can lose track of multiple billions of dollars in its budget very casually--and without any Congressional concern--can also lose track of some of its hundreds of bases. So many billions, so many bases, so many wars, past, present and future, just overloads the mind and the computers. Oh, did someone say something about a bunch of abandoned and untreated veterans of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan? Well, when we find some time, we'll get right on it.
Well said, and reported.
Three trillion for wars with no end in sight is far more palatable for Americans that one trillion for expanded health care. Ya gotta love those old-fashioned values, eh?
We reap what we sow.
"The US has waged an expensive war as if it required little or no economic sacrifice, funding the conflict with massive borrowing." Yes, and "This wartime spending has undoubtedly been a major contributor to our present economic collapse." Would that many more recognized that the ruling elites have been building a global US military empire ever since WW II ended and that it has cost around $40 trillion. Rather than seeking to create a peaceful world in the age of nuclear weapons and after the horrific devastations of WW II, the patriarchal rulers here decided to go for global domination, which they still apparently seek, even as the financial house of cards crashes all around us. The big O shows no sign of being other than one more US leader enthralled by the empire project even as it fails, putting pedal to the metal in Af-Pak now and maybe with the madmen in Israel, Iran tomorrow.
Now, as China and other lenders show increasing reluctance to finance the US globocop extortion operations, is there any leadership here in sight ready to speak truth to power and to the citizens about The Sorrows of Empire? Chalmers Johnson's book of that title should be required reading for all leaders--and citizens. The unravelling of empire here at home is already producing homeless and hungy millions and is likely to become increasingly unpleasant for more and more. It is not just the criminal Wall Street banksters who dug the pit into which we are falling, but also those who led the military-industrial-congressional operation of the global military empire operation. Their PR propaganda operations kept up a drumbeat of boogie men who were going to get us all--commies and reds for decades and now terrorists--to control and convince the citizens of the virtue and necessity of their ever expanding military budgets, weapons systems and projects. Now a yawningly bottomless pit of debt has opened beneath the whole mad operation. It is unlikely to be a happy landing.
Courtjester, I strongly second your recommendation of Chalmers Johnson's book(s) "Blowback"
"The Sorrows of Empire" and "Nemesis". In one he uses the terms "front-loading" and "political engineering". "Front-loading" involves promoting the funding of a new weapon to counter the threat from the enemy-du-jour; once approved for production, the delays and cost overruns kick in. "Political engineering" pertains to the careful apportioning of contracts throughout as many electoral districts as possible, not just Boeing in Seattle, so that curbing military spending means cutting jobs. Jobs=votes, votes=re-election, re-election=continued contract awards.
The system works.
I would also strongly recommend Joseph Tainter's "The Collapse of Complex Societies". He analyses a number of states and empires and shows how the inherent costs of military expansion and its maintenance inevitably come to cost more than the economic benefits gained. For the US population there has been a net loss of benefits in recent decades . The enablers of the military-industrial-financial system have been able to hold up their huge war profits by lowering the real earnings of the low and medium income people -- and by postponement of debt payments. But that phase is now over.
The authors say, "Surely we can draw some lessons from the Iraq debacle and set aside money to care for our veterans, crack down on fraud and profiteering, and account for the true costs of the war in the budget so the American taxpayer can see what we are paying for."
Well, no, as a matter of fact we can't. Doing any of that would be so utterly out of character for this Business Party government that Obama would be hounded out of office in a month. We're all about never learning anything from past debacles, miscalculations and outright fuckups, not to mention serial war crimes. We do everything possible to AVOID caring for vets, providing them as little care as possible so we can ramp up for the next war. Fraud and profiteering are the heart and soul of every US war effort for the past 60 years, so that certainly can't be of any serious concern. Without fraud and profiteering we have no reason to illegally start wars in the first place. And Americans are NEVER to be allowed to "see what we are paying for", especially regarding our central activity--war on virtually defenseless countries.
No accountability, no learning from past crimes and "mistakes," no nothing. Just perpetual war under either wing of the Business Party, no matter how much it bankrupts us or destroys our international image. We have to destroy ourselves somehow! This seems like as good a way as any.
Oregoncharles
Obama was selected by the money - you have seen the stats on how much and from whom, right?
So of course he'd be hounded by the corporations if he actually began to stray from their agenda, which is world domination. But they're not worried. They know full well he is a safe bet. Obama has been groomed for this job for years. What do you think those books were meant to accomplish: The Audacity of Hope. Ya think the empire would hire someone they can't trust! duh.
America can have its choice while maintaining the pretense of solvency - it can either repair and maintain its crumbling social and physical infrastructure or it can have perpetual war. It can't have both.
We are in the same hole we always were in only much deeper now.
The statistics in this article are misleading. Contractors outnumber military personnel.
Military spending is the shadow economic stimulus package. Elected officials will not vote against military spending out of fear of losing more jobs in their districts. NPR reported today on how the Navy is expanding facilities in San Diego County CA, thereby keeping the economy in that area from collapsing.