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Wednesday, February 19th, 2014

Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq to Cost U.S. Over $4 Trillion

Author:     PIERCE NAHIGYAN
Source:     Nation of Change
Publication Date:     Tuesday 18 February 2014
 Link: Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq to Cost U.S. Over $4 Trillion
Stephan:   The more time goes by the more history condemns the decision to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iraq is a disaster. Daily life in Baghdad is in worse shape than it was under Saddam Hussein. Afghanistan isn't really a state at all. It is a collection of tribal groupings. Both are bleeding sores in the minds of the Islamic world, with the U.S. as the villain. These countries are vastly more anti-American than they were at the start of the wars. And the cost. Imagine what could have been done with those trillions. Think how many jobs would have been created in renovating our infrastructure, developing a real healthcare system, improving public education. And consider what that prosperity would feel like. We are living through a world historical miscalculation of epoch proportions. We will pay for this mistake for a generation. This essay outlines some of the issues.

In March 2013, the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government issued a report on the costs of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Presently, these conflicts, which America has been fighting for over a decade, have totaled approximately $2 trillion in war debt.

This figure includes direct outlays for America’s three main military operations:

Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) – The official name for America’s war in Afghanistan.
Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) – The official name for America’s war in Iraq (which some may remember by its original title: Operation Iraqi Liberation, or OIL).
Operation New Dawn (OND) – The official title for America’s war in Iraq under President Obama’s command (2010 to present).

These operations were implemented under the umbrella of America’s Global War on Terror. In 2006, President George W. Bush would tell CNBC that the war on terror was nothing less than ‘the first counter-attack to World War III.”

That counter-attack, or World War III, continues through the present day, twelve years after the first and only attack on America’s home soil since the turn of the century. In that time, America has financed its $2 trillion war […]

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