The One
Trillion Dollar War - Nothing To Show For It
By Joe Clifford
August 26, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- We have become so accustomed to war we don’t even
bother to discuss it anymore. The war in Afghanistan
has dragged on for almost 15 years, and it is no
longer mentioned or discussed on corporate news. The
clown show, sometimes called a presidential race,
has been reduced to two candidates, both of whom are
hated by the voting public, and neither has raised
the issue of Afghanistan once. The candidates have
not been asked about it, and neither has spoken
about it. It is the silent war that appears to be
never ending, but just because it is not discussed
does not mean you are not paying for it. So far the
tab is one trillion dollars and rising every day. To
most of us a “trillion” dollars is a meaningless
figure, because most readers, myself included,
cannot relate to a “trillion”, but consider this. A
trillion dollars looks like this:
$1,000,000,000,000, and a billion looks like this:
$1,000,000,000. A trillion dollars equals one
thousand times a billion, so there are 1,000 billion
in a trillion. Still can’t relate? How about
billions? One billion equals 1,000 million. Still
cannot relate. One trillion dollars spread out flat
on the ground would cover 4 thousand square miles.
If you stacked one trillion dollars in a pile, the
pile would be 68,000 miles high.
So what is the point?
What do we have to show for our one trillion-dollar
war? What have we accomplished? We have nothing to
show, and have accomplished absolutely nothing.
NOTHING!!!
The Taliban now controls more land in Afghanistan
than ever. US forces cannot venture into the Afghan
countryside because they will get killed. The only
place in the entire country that is considered under
US and Afghan control is the capital city of Kabul,
which coincidentally is where the US has its giant
embassy with its Green Zone. However, even within
Kabul, US troops usually resort to helicopters to
get from one section of Kabul to another for fear of
getting killed in cars or armored vehicles.
Originally we went to Afghanistan to get Bin Laden
and the perpetrators of 9/11, despite the fact that
none of those perpetrators came from Afghanistan.
They all originated in Saudi Arabia. The Taliban
contacted the US government and said they were
willing to give us Bin Laden if we presented proof
or evidence that Bin Laden was responsible for 9/11.
The US refused their offer, so the entire war was a
wasted effort from day one. First we attacked the
wrong country, and second, Bin Laden could have been
handed over to us without any war.
When the war did not go as expected, President Obama
announced a new Drug War in Afghanistan. So how has
that gone? We have spent about 10 billion dollars on
the drug war, and the rate of opium and heroin
production is now about 40 times greater than when
the drug war began. Afghanistan now is responsible
for about 85% of the worlds heroin production. The
US nor the Afghan government can go into the highly
productive heroin and opium areas for fear of their
safety. Once outside Kabul, US soldiers are at great
risk. The Taliban sells its heroin around the world
and uses the money to finance its war against the
occupation of their country by the US.
So what are we doing there?? Who knows? The war is
not good for the Afghan people, or the US army, and
certainly not the American people. It goes on
endlessly with no winner. At some point down the
road, the US will be forced to end the occupation
and leave Afghanistan to its own people. Isn’t that
the way it should be?
Since 9/11 cannot be used as a pretext for the
endless Afghan war and occupation, the focus had to
change. We began saying the Taliban had to be
stopped from taking over the government. But wait;
two opposing forces fighting to control a country is
a civil war, i.e. North vs South in Civil War. What
business is it of the US to get involved in another
countries civil war? What give the US the right to
decide who should rule Afghanistan? There is no such
right!
So in the end, we have no business being there, and
never had a legitimate reason to get involved in the
affairs of Afghanistan, but we have been for 15
years. One trillion dollars of your money has been
spent on an illegitimate war which has resulted in
absolute and total failure. But the Military
Industrial Complex has grown rich, which just might
be the point of this whole endless war. A wonderful
example of corporate welfare. Will either of the two
candidates end this nonsense? No, but Jill Stein
will.
What could have been done with one trillion dollars?
How about infrastructure, how about Single Payer
health care for all, how about free college for all?
When Democrats, Republicans, and corporate media say
such things are not affordable, they are lying.
Easily affordable if we stopped our worldwide wars.
All other major nations have these things; they can
afford them because they don’t just do war.
What fools we are. |
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