Recent wars involving U.S. far too costly in money, lives

Published 1:30 am Monday, March 16, 2020

Here is a short summary of many, but not all, of the costs of some of the recent wars:

According to “The American Conservative” the monetary cost to America of the post-911 wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan comes to $6.4 trillion. That total is $2 trillion more than the whole federal government spending during the 2019 fiscal year. This does not include cost to the rest of the world or the cost of the interest on the money we borrowed for these wars.

There have been more than 52,356 causalities of which 5,682 Americans have died.

More than 801,000 people have died as a direct result of fighting. Of those, more than 335,000 have been civilians, which as a civilian, I take personally.

There will be hundreds of million more spent for the care of the veterans, widows and orphans.

The trillions of dollars needed to restore the war-torn economies, homes, and infrastructure in the Middle East.

Some 21 million people have been displaced due to violence.

Uncounted millions have to heal themselves with little or no help from the terror induced by nearby battles and attacks.

The tragedy is that many of the wars were brought on by our hunger for oil and other resources. The tragedy was further compounded by delayed action. Many experts predicted the problems but politicians chose not to make decisions and waited until they had “no choice” but to use force.

Violence, Isaac Asimov said, is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Gary McCaig

Lynnwood