South Korea. Quagmire. Afghanistan. Quagmire. Iran?

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Bygod we were right. We were right all those times we argued over at TOP against going into, staying, escalating, and continuing the war in Afghanistan. And now all the other "Credit Card Wars". Maybe a new one with Iran is being planned on the road ahead...

Iran says Trump has tried to meet with them. Gah, who knows why?

People in this country really need to know what these wars have cost them, are costing, will cost.... and not just in dollar terms. More might want to stop future wars if they new...

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176449/tomgram%3A_rebecca_gordon%2C_maki...

The report was devastating -- or would have been, if anyone here had noticed it. "Between 2001 and 2017," it concluded, "U.S. government efforts to stabilize insecure and contested areas in Afghanistan mostly failed." I’m thinking of “Stabilization: Lessons From the U.S. Experience in Afghanistan” put out by the office of the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, or SIGAR. It focused on 15 years of U.S. efforts to defeat the Taliban and “reconstruct” that country. Issued in late May, it got a few cursory news reports before disappearing into the maw of Trump addiction. But don’t blame The Donald for that. When was the last time -- even before he entered the Oval Office -- that any serious attention was paid here to the longest war in American history, our forever war or “generational struggle” or “infinite war”? When was the last true policy debate on it?

What of it? Guess most people in the US can find no useful information for making decisions about the ongoing wars in the Middle East from the corporate media.

But though our suffering here pales in the face of the devastation and deaths of Afghanistan, as well as all the many other bombed to hell and back countries in the ME, through all this and the other wars in the Middle East our country has not escaped unscathed.

Stephanie Savell calls these 'Credit Card Wars'. I like that characterization, think I might be able to use that in educating others about our situation.

The impact of this new way of funding wars? Most of us know it's being charged forward, and that we will all eventually be asked to pay.

Who are the real winners in this fail though?

Savell gets into specifics . I was surprised at how much of this war debt is foreign owned.

Worth a read ....

Her conclusions:

Pressing for a real war budget, though, is not only a mechanism to alert Americans to the effects (on them) of the wars their government is fighting. It is also a potential lever through which citizens could affect the country’s foreign policy and pressure elected officials to bring those wars to an end. Some civic groups and activists from across the political spectrum have indeed been pushing to reduce the Pentagon budget, bloated by war, corruption, and fear-mongering. They are, however, up against both the power of an ascendant military-industrial complex and wars that have been organized, in their funding and in so many other ways, not to be noticed.

Those who care about this country’s economic future would be remiss not to include today’s war financing strategy among the country’s most urgent fiscal challenges. Anyone interested in improving American democracy and the well-being of its people should begin by connecting the budgetary dots. The more money this country spends on military activities, the more public coffers will be depleted by war-related interest payments and the less public funding there will be for anything else. In short, it’s time for Americans worried about living in a country whose inequality gap could soon surpass that of the Gilded Age to begin paying real attention to our “credit-card wars.”

Some great links in there for those who might take the time to educate themselves on the specifics, just in case anyone would like to prepare to argue against those who will call for a possible war with Iran.

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divineorder's picture

The United States of Arms from Will Geary on Vimeo.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

detroitmechworks's picture

@divineorder American Guns Create FREEDOM! As soon as they stop buying their guns from America they're to be considered EVIL! But, it also reflects the economic relationship of the us to the rest of the world. Buy from us or we'll sit in your country until you do.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

edg's picture

@detroitmechworks

... change "sit in your country until you do" to "shit on your country until you do".

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lotlizard's picture

@edg  
America will tell your country’s people to “suck on this” until you do.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwFaSpca_3Q]

https://crooksandliars.com/2007/11/19/thomas-friedman-and-iraq-suck-on-this

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Lookout's picture

I caught the one you posted yesterday. Mr Google's algorithm is pretty accurate.

Did you catch this one? (2.3 min) The Endless Wars explained...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2hRRGHBeSw]

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

divineorder's picture

@Lookout @Lookout @Lookout because people should be aware of it and share it far and wide!

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

snoopydawg's picture

D.O. I found the longer video of the glacier that recently broke off that is longer and shows more of the power of what happened.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

divineorder's picture

@snoopydawg

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

snoopydawg's picture

@divineorder

The person who wrote the diary about this iceberg has a new one today about the massive fires in many countries close to the ? artic. Or somewhere where it's supposed to be cold and not burning. It says something about burning methane. I've heard that the melting permafrost will release methane so maybe that's why it's burning? Either way it's not good. The end result of climate change and rising sea levels is that NYC is going to be underwater.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

snoopydawg's picture

home from Germany and other countries where they are not needed anymore. Once upon a time most people wanted that to happen too. But now because of their intense hatred of Trump they think it's a bad idea. If the troops pull out of Germany then Russia will immediately invade and Germany won't be able to stop them. No seriously, this is what people believe.

NATO needs to be disbanded because it was supposed to protect against countries invading others, but that is exactly what NATO has been doing. $5.6 trillion is just what this country has spent on our wars. What is the total cost of the wars when you add in what other countries have spent? Just imagine what that amount of money could have been used for instead of killing and destruction. Then there's the cost to families whose members have been killed or injured, the cost for treating the injured, the cost to house the refugees who had to flee because their countries were no longer livable because of the damage or the left over weapons that have depleted uranium in them, or their country is now being ran by the terrorists that we went to fight in the first place.

There is no good war. Never been one. The people who fought in them are long dead and the reasons they fought are still around today. Greed will never go away.

One reason why Trump wants countries to pay more for NATO is because they will have to take the money out of the social programs. Neat trick to keep the reasons for austerity don't you think?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

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chuck utzman

TULSI 2020