Iraq - Sixteen Years and Counting
Yesterday, March 20, marked the sixteenth anniversary of the Iraq War, an illegal war started under false pretenses by the Bush administration acting on behalf of the neocon military industrial complex. The September / October 2006 edition of Mother Jones published a detailed timeline of the decisions leading up to the US invasion of and war in Iraq.
Let's take a look at some statistics, some of which may be under counts, particularly those related to civilian casualties and the costs. Using tweets by Kyle Kulinski of Secular Talk, below are some raw numbers. These numbers were taken from the March 20, 2013 edition of Business Insider. Since they are five years old, some of the numbers may have changed or increased since then. Pay close attention to contractor profits and the very last number in his series of tweets.
The Iraq War turns 16, here are the facts about it (some outdated, but still relevant):
- US soldiers killed: at least 4,400
- US soldiers injured (not including PTSD): 32,200
- civilians directly killed: 134,000
- indirect deaths from the invasion: 655,000
(1/?)— Secular Talk (@KyleKulinski) March 20, 2019
Iraq War turns 16, facts about it (continued):
- reporters killed: 150
- 2.8 million: internally displaced or fled the country
- $1.7 trillion: direct war spending as of 2013
- $5,000: amount spent per second
- $490 billion: war benefits owed to vets
- $7 trillion: cost by 2053..— Secular Talk (@KyleKulinski) March 20, 2019
Iraq War turns 16, facts about it (continued):
- $20 billion: amount paid to corrupt contractor KBR
- $3 billion: "questionable" payments to corrupt contractor KBR
- $60 billion: amount paid for corrupted "reconstruction"
- Missing: $546 million; 190,000 guns, 110,000 AK-47s...— Secular Talk (@KyleKulinski) March 20, 2019
Iraq War turns 16, facts about it (continued):
- 40%: Increase in Iraqi oil production
- $5 billion: Revenue from Iraqi oil in 2003
- $85 billion: Revenue from Iraqi oil in 2011
- $150 billion: Amount oil companies are expected to invest in oil development over the next decade..— Secular Talk (@KyleKulinski) March 20, 2019
Iraq War turns 16, facts about it (continued):
- $75 billion: Approximate amount expected to go to American subcontracting companies, largest of all Halliburton.
- 0: number of Nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction foundhttps://t.co/MrddjDqqYb— Secular Talk (@KyleKulinski) March 20, 2019
The numbers are staggering even though some may be under counts. And what have we learned or gained from this war? Apparently nothing except that war is the most profitable export of the United States, particularly for the military industrial complex. For the American people, the fiscal costs have been enormous. And for the Iraqis, the human and the environmental costs of this war will continue to linger long afterwards.
And now some of the same architects behind the Iraq War are pushing for war with Venezuela and Iran. Meanwhile the house of cards that is the United States is collapsing under the cost of its military imperialism. And the American people have become desensitized to the destruction and violence that is being waged woldwide in our names.
The hard truth is that, while the Iraq War may be publicly remembered as an “embarrassment” for the neocons, it was the true beginning of our transformation into a nation of their passive enablers. Regular Americans may not plan and plot forever wars or the destruction of nations and innocent lives, but most certainly go along with it, especially when we are told that “Leader X” kills his own people and “Leader Y” represents a threat to “national security.” Our consent to be governed and guided by madmen has led us to become a nation of passive neocons.
Comments
That politicians, neo-cons & war profiteers
Take our money by gutting social programs and reducing civil servants pension benefits so they can butcher, maim, and displace men, woman and children all over the world because of greed and power is beyond sickening. It is the greatest crime against humanity and disgrace of our time.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
And yet, there is no real outrage
in this country. This is what is so shocking to me. In my four plus years with the Peace vigil, we met very few people who supported these wars, but we also saw little to no outrage. This was the reason I included the quote at the end of my essay. We have been numbed down and dumbed down to exactly how evil all of this is.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
The war is not televisied
US citizens are ignorant of our war mongering. Most can't find Yemen on a map and have no idea we are starving children, spreading disease, committing war crimes, etc...
Even so called educated people will deny we are terrorists despite the fact we sell more weapons than anyone, have 800+ military bases, blatantly promote coups anywhere our corporations don't control, drone anyone anywhere anytime for whatever we want, threaten anyone or country that isn't complicit in our imperialistic desires to control the world.
Willful ignorance perhaps, but none the less our fellow citizens don't even recognize us for what we have become (or perhaps always have been). It is easier to see the US as the beacon on the hill like we were programed to see throughout our lives.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Yes, American exceptionalism
American exceptionalism has been ingrained in us from birth. Most people see it as a positive. I see it as a fatal disease, fatal to anyone who crosses us up.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
The numbers are staggering.
Kulinksi needs to put them into one document instead of a series of tweets. Together, the cost of that lie is mind numbing. Thanks for sharing this GG.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Thanks for pointing this out, dk
I need to edit this essay to openly give credit to Business Insider which is where Kulinski got the numbers. He linked it in his last tweet, but it is easy to miss. I used his tweets because I thought it would be easier to digest.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
bring back the draft?
instead of an all-volunteer Army, how about an all-draft one?
We've gone from "I don't want to kill, I don't want to die" to "They signed up for it and I honor their service".
I don't honor that. I don't thank them for that. Volunteering means being willing to turn the handle of the meat grinder. It has nothing to do with "protecting our country". Wait....gotta stop here because it's so easy to go into a long rant, one which you not only agree with but almost surely have thought yourself.
"little to no outrage" is itself an outrage.
That is an excellent point Shahryar
Many rejoiced when the draft ended (me among them), but others pointed out that the military needed the moderating influence of citizens who did not volunteer (actually usually join for financial reasons). The latter were correct. It is much easier to start and maintain wars now than it was in the era of Vietnam. It is also easier to support wars (or not think about wars) if your son or daughter are not in danger of being drafted.
right, because we thought it would end war
if they needed more people for their wars and could only get enough by drafting kids then when they stopped the draft there would be such a shortage of participants that wars would cease.
Not only would "we" not go, nobody would. Except it hasn't turned out that way.
Sadly in many depressed areas of the country
joining the military is a way out for young people.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
BINGO.
And that is exactly the way our owners want it. And they plan not only to keep it that way but to make things even worse to perhaps increase the numbers of desperate young people willing to "volunteer" simply so they can eat. And the rest of the country who don't have to volunteer for service can sit back in their comfortable living rooms and lament how these volunteers are simply war mongers who desire to kill and how all the wars would magically stop if these dumb kids would just simply refuse to serve. The American Way.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
For a few decades it was one of the few ways disadvantaged youth
in Hawaii could get to see and experience the world outside of the Islands.
I have heard arguments for and against the draft
All four of us in the Peace vigil believed that a draft with no exceptions would be a good first start. Don, one of my fellow Peace vigil participants, is a retired medical doctor who was actually drafted out of medical school in the 1950's.
I wrote an essay some time back about how few Americans nowadays actually have known a living family member who has served in the military. My father served with the First Marine Division in Okinawa in WWII. Since then, no family member in my or my husband's family has served in the military.
Further, as the time that essay was written, only 18% of all Congress had ever served, most of whom never saw combat.
The famously neutral country of Switzerland has mandatory military conscription for every able bodied male.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Also, this war has destabilized
the Mideast, flooding Jordan, Syria, and Europe with refugees and refueled the Holy War between Islam and Christendom. Assholes.
“Progressives” treat G.H.W.Bush & his son as beloved figures now
There are no neocons whom such “progressives” won’t close ranks with.
There is no neocon cause that such “progressives” won’t embrace.
All because “Orange Man Bad.”
The mind boggles.