The true cost of war. 3 wars and counting

Afghan girl by Steve Mccury

Hey Readers,

Afghanistan:

As you may know, President Obama has ordered the return of some 10,000 troops, somewhat immediately, from Afghanistan. Mr. Obama is struggling to convince the nation that we have won in Afghanistan. Have we 'won'? Well, It depends how you define the term. According to NYTimes reporting on the matter, our armed forces have assassinated 20/30 of Al-Qaeda's operating hierarchy. Seal Team 6 took out Osama and dealt an undeniably severe blow to Al-Qaeda's virulent efforts. We have spent billions training the Afghan army and billions more investing in roads and other vital programs inside of Afghanistan. On the other hand, we have lost 1,633 troops, spent tens of billions of dollars on myriad project (with seemingly little result and too much corruption) and the President of Afghanistan (Karzai) consistently denounces us as occupiers and routinely threatens to join the Taliban. The question that Obama has asked, and decided against, is: is it necessary to have more troops in Afghanistan to ensure our safety?

It appears to me, that most of our gains against the leadership of al-Qaeda and against Taliban officials (not the grunts) has been a result of our special forces. Vice President Biden has argued that we could do more in Afghanistan with very few troops (specialty forces remaining) and drones then with a occupying force. I tend to agree, if and only if, civilian casualties are avoided as much as possible. The blow back from civilian casualties is immense (and heartbreaking by itself) and according to a very liberal source (pound of salt here), over 900,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan by both the Allied forces and the Taliban/Qaeda forces. It is my humble and civilian opinion, that we must bring more troops home than the President requested, and move toward the 'light footprint' plan that focuses on dismantling the senior leadership of enemy networks. It is clear that we should continue our negotiations with the Taliban, as we can not win this war by sheer military force alone (especially since Pakistan is protecting Taliban (and Qaeada) leadership.

Iraq:

To be honest, I feel this is an issue that has been covered too much, but still a question remains: why did we go to war in the first place? I am not interested in the fake reasons and not even interested in exploring the issue here in my blog. I simply still don't know why we occupied(occupy) Iraq. I do know that we have lost 4,463 of our troops (iCausality.com) fighting for that unknown cause. Fighting for that ill defined mission, that odd occupation of a country that had nothing to do with 9-11 (thanks neo-cons). It is surely time that our troops come home from Iraq.

Libya:

There has been around 110 Tamahawk missiles fired in Libya by the U.S. and Britain. Each of those missiles costs around 500,000 Euros or about $1 million to fire (BBC). This is excluding the costs to operate the naval vessels and bombers and the cost to pay the salaries of the service-members involved. It is very noble to stop massacres of innocent civilians. I am more than happy to pay extra taxes to fund truly humanitarian missions. However, Libya looks increasingly like a regime change operation We are obviously targeting Gadafhi. Too many have died in Libya as a result of the fighting, it is heartbreaking. President Obama should make clear what our mission and goal is in Libya and take all strides to avoid civilian casualties. If our mission is to protect civilians, then sign me up as a supporter.

The cost of war:

According to the Congressional Research Service , the Wars in Afghanistan & Iraq have cost U.S. taxpayers some $1.283 trillion, trillion, with a 't'. The same source documents that the wars could cost us around $1.8 trillion by 2021, if god forbid, we are still fighting those wars at roughly our current level. Just for comparison, the entire budget for the UNHCR (an agency that provides food and shelter for millions of refugees) is around $80 million a year.

Can we justify cutting food stamps and aid for pregnant women (GOP ideas) when we spent over $3 trillion on those two wars alone!!??

I think not... time to seriously cut back our wars and to re-evaluate how and why we wage war.

Thanks for reading!