Iraq/Afghanistan Wars Will Cost Over $8 BILLION A Month

Elaine Meinel Supkis

The news on the War on Terror continues to clearly show total American defeat coupled with an astonishing prospect that tiny, itty bitty al Qaeda will succeed in their original goal: bankrupting America and ripping our military machine to pieces. Just like a handful of sand thrown into a gearbox will destroy a vehicle's ability to move forwards. Why don't Americans worry about this looming bankruptcy?

For example, many in Congress try to pass legislations forbidding permanent bases in Iraq but Bush keeps propping the door open for continuous occupation.

WASHINGTON - September 26 - The U.S. Congress this week finalized legislation that bars funding to construct permanent military bases in Iraq, and states definitively that it is the policy of the United States government not to exercise control over Iraq’s petroleum resources.

“The perception that the U.S. military plans to stay in Iraq indefinitely has fueled the insurgency and undermined the stability of the Iraqi government,” said Ruth Flower, legislative director for the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). “This legislation is an important first step in changing the failed U.S. policy in Iraq.”

The 63-year-old Quaker lobby, FCNL, has been working with members of Congress on this policy since January 2005. Reps. Barbara Lee (CA) and Tom Allen (ME) advanced stand-alone bills to bar permanent bases in 2005, and in 2006 the House and the Senate approved similar amendments banning permanent bases as part of an emergency supplemental spending bill and then as part of the military authorization legislation. In both cases, the administration persuaded leaders in the House and Senate to strip out the “no permanent bases” language during conference committee negotiations.

The delusion that we can keep troops within this Muslim nation for all time just won't die. We were supposed to have troops in Saudi Arabia temporarily until Kuwait was returned to the slave-owning corrupt sheiks who ruled it as despots but we decided to stay until bin Laden forced us to withdraw. He made it clear, one of his goals was to get us out of Saudi Arabia. The next was to cleanse Mecca of the Saudi Royals who are corrupt, venal men.

Whenever I read standard analysis of the news one thing I notice is few people keep bin Laden's stated intentions in mind. Namely, they assume bin Laden wants to be popular and when his actions irritate people, he is losing.

As a person who has used whips and other devices to make a much stronger horse or ox obey my commands, I assure everyone that the whip wielder has to inspire some fear and the whip has to have a sting or it won't work.

So every time our government tries to make things go well for us, bin Laden whips us into a fury and off we go, killing everyone in our vicinity. The rulers within Islam hate bin Laden and fear him but they have no way of stopping him from whipping them over and over again. All they can do is bribe and kill.

This means he wins every round for he needs chaos and rage to fuel the fires of change and what he aims to change is the entire structure of govenment in Muslim nations all of which were started and abetted by Western Powers that picked apart the entire Ottoman empire.

Attempts at creating a sense of national patriotism were thwarted by the same powers that created these small nation/states. Whenever popular opinion would raise some nationalist to power, the secret and overt organizations in Europe and America would work tirelessly to overthrow and deny popular nationalism.

So in retaliation and despair, all Muslim political power movements became fundamentalist. This means they have given up on patriotism and will now embrace Islam which means international, cross-border religious unity. This then fueled an interior religious conflict that is resolving itself gradually in one fashion or another, I would guess just as the Mongols converted to Islam in order to hold down the lands they conquered, possibly some outsider will do the same, this has been the story of the region for a thousand years.

The amount of money we are wasting in Iraq and Afganistan is astonishing.

By Drew Brown McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The total cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and enhanced security at military bases since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks could reach $549 billion this year, a new report to Congress concludes.

*snip*

In fiscal year 2005, the Pentagon spent an average of $6.4 billion a month in Iraq and $1.3 billion a month in Afghanistan. During fiscal year 2006, it's projected that those costs will have increased to about $8 billion a month in Iraq and $1.5 billion per month in Afghanistan.

Eight billion a month? Are they nuts? What the hell? As with the British Empire that spent wildly attempting to hold onto all their many subject lands which caused their military costs (navies are tremendously expensive!) to balloon to larger than all the military in the world together, so it is with us today. Every penny spent on the military is a net loss for us over time. Since our last remaining industrial production is military, this means our entire country is bent on becoming Sparta without the Spartan lifestyle.

Which means bankruptcy. How much is China spending on holding down their own empire? Not much, I would say. Despite the cries to 'free Tibet', the military presense there isn't very great and certainly there is no raging warfare there unlike Chechnya with Russia. Although the Dalai Lhama is angry about the Chinese bringing business and trade into Tibet which once was a festering, fetid religious dictatorship (yes, it was never 'free' in the liberal sense!) the Tibetans are enjoying a prosperity they haven't known in a thousand years, thus the relative peace.

Our billions wasted in the Middle East are not bringing prosperity or hope to the people there. The money is spent in wasted ways that enrich the military/industrial complex while starving the natives. This never ends well. As we go bankrupt, the consortiums feasting on all this money will be flush and happy while American citizens will be starved literally to death as all government programs that help Americans are ruthlessly cut to ribbons.

Which, incidentally, is part of bin Laden's plan for America can't project power if the people within America are rioting and dissenting and trying to overthrow a dictatorship!

Already, internal support for this stupid war on terror is collapsing rapidly.

Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & ResearchFewer adults in the United States believe their government’s handling of the coalition effort has been adequate, according to a poll by Harris Interactive. Only 20 per cent of respondents are confident that U.S. policies in Iraq will be successful, down nine points in two years.

The coalition effort against Saddam Hussein’s regime was launched in March 2003. At least 2,708 American soldiers have died during the military operation, and more than 20,400 troops have been wounded in action.

Since there is near unanimity for the USA to withdraw troops, should't we go? This will save us from doom! It will thwart bin Laden's nefarious plans! What is there to not love? Why on earth are we trying to stay?

It can't be the oil. There is no way we are making a profit off of the oil. It doesn't make us feared or stronger, the whip isn't ours, it is held by bin Laden and no one really fears us, they loathe us. They all fear or follow or heed bin Laden.

Asymetrical warfare means one country pours all its wealth and power into a conflict and the other side uses jujitsu to turn it all backwards. And this war of ours will be used in history like Pyrrus, future generations will use the 'Mission Accomplished' event as a joke to describe total defeat.

What really pisses me off is the lack of alarm in DC. Not only are we facing tactical defeat on the ground, we are facing a historic defeat of our entire empire, across the globe. Our retraction of force will be greater than the Soviet Union's when they collapsed into bankruptcy. The stewards of our security are waging a war that is undermining our security for far from strengthening defenses at home, we are weakening them as we vainly try to project power onto the fracticious people who hate us for trying to project power uon them!

The strategic defeat is more serious: we thought we won WWII via only military might. We didn't.

We won through INDUSTRIAL POWER and the rise of unions and the power within our home base expanded gigantically during and after WWII. This latest war is REDUCING our industrial base! Ergo: by misunderstanding history and how economic power translates into diplomatic power, we lose not only our empire but perhaps lose everything, namely, America collapses into chaos.

Here is an example from today of the useless, expensive, infuriating military actions that work for bin Laden and against us.

Updated: 8:20 p.m. ET Sept 27, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq - American troops killed eight people — four of them women — after taking heavy fire during a raid Wednesday on a suspected terrorist’s house northeast of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.

But relatives of the dead disputed the U.S. account, saying their family had nothing to do with any terrorist group.

This happens over and over again. Expect more women soldiers to be blown up by angry Iraqis in retaliation.

Sensibly, the Iraqi people want us to leave as soon as humanly possible. All polls in Iraq show clearly, the people there are fed up with us and want us gone.

Most have confidence in the Iraqi army (64 percent) and police (71 percent) to protect their security. More than eight in 10 lack such confidence in U.S. troops.

Thirty-seven percent want U.S. troops to withdraw within six months; an additional 34 percent want them to withdraw within the next year.

Nearly eight in 10 say the U.S. presence in Iraq is provoking more conflict than it's preventing (as opposed to being "a stabilizing force.")

In their collective wisdom, they know what needs to be done. But the neo cons ruling America refuse to listen to them or listen to us. American support for this war now is at 20%! Since neither Americans nor Iraqis support this war, shouldn't it end?

This takes us back to why we are there. It isn't for the oil. The forces at work here that want to defy and rule over the Muslim nations lives in Tel Aviv.

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Comments

[Daliwood]

David Isenberg agrees that bin Laden has the upper hand now because of Bush's failed strategy (if you can call it that). He writes,

"The Bush administration's insistence on fighting a war of choice in Iraq has given Osama bin Laden exactly what he dreamed of, an enormous overreaction that has vastly increased anti-American sentiment around the world, divided America from allies and sympathetic countries, and served as a recruiting tool for thousands of Muslims who might otherwise have turned a deaf ear to bin Laden and al-Qaida."

From http://www.spacewar.com/reports/How_Bush_Strategy_Failed_Part_Two_999.html

[Jesus Reyes]

The neoconservatives said in the run up to March 2003;

1) the oil will pay for it, 2) they will greet us like Parisians on the Champs-Elysees, 3) and in a matter of a few weeks we would need no more than 30,000 occupation troops (building libraries and teaching children).

October, 2006;

1) not only have we not pumped any oil, we have spent 400 billion+ at the rate of 9 billion a month - and that is no where near enough, 2) If the Parisians had greeted Hitler like the Iraqi insurgency greeted us, there would have never been a D-Day, 3) Instead of 30,000 troops there are 140,000 troops + 35,000 "private security contractors" (what they admit), unknown numbers of KBR handling supply and logistics, unknown numbers of south asians handling logistics and driving

Sitting ducks all, just waiting for Iran to cut al-Sadr loose and turn the MSR Tampa to turn into a shooting gallery.

[jkw]

You need to proofread your headlines more carefully. But reading that the war was costing us over $8/month was good for a laugh :)

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

I had to run off to work very early and didn't proofread.

Always, when I don't have time to check, the gremlins go to work. They know what they are doing...heh. Got to find my roachmotel and catch the buggers.