The act of war is hardly cheap. In fact, as the years go by and technology progresses, each war becomes increasingly more expensive than the last. There are troops to train, house, and feed, as well as transportation to provide and weapons to manufacture. Many people fail to realize that the spending continues long after the war has ended in the form of stabilizing and reconstructing war-torn countries and care for veterans. A large amount of this money comes from United States taxpayers. While no one is particularly fond of paying taxes, most of us accept it as our duty and contribute without too much complaint. Would we still continue to do so if we knew what was really happening with our tax dollars? Although many people believe the money spent on war is justified, in reality a huge amount of that money ends up being stolen, mismanaged, or simply falls through the cracks and is never seen again.
In March of 2003, President George W. Bush launched an invasion of Iraq, thus beginning the Iraq war, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, our most recent involvement with war. Larry Lindsey, an economist for the Bush administration, estimated that this war would cost the United States between $100 billion and $200 billion; however, those numbers were seriously underestimated (Stiglitz 1). In the article, “A Tabulation of the Human, Financial, and Strategic Costs,” Matthew Duss, Peter Juul, and Brian Katulis report that as of May, 2010, the Iraq war has cost the United States $748.2 billion. In the years to come, it is expected that another $422 billion to $717 billion will be spent on veteran health care and disability. As of early 2010, the relief and reconstruction of Iraq has cost the United States an additional $162.83 billio...
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Gerth, Jeff, and Don Van Natta Jr. “In Tough Times, a Company Finds Profits in Terror War.” The New York Times. 13 July 2002. Web. 2 Feb. 2011.
Glanz, James. “Cost of Taking Fuel to Iraq is Questioned in New Audit.” The New York Times. 7 Nov. 2006. Web. 2 Feb. 2011.
Greene, Stephen G. "Challenges in Aiding Iraq." Chronicle of Philanthropy 15.13 (2003): 22. Religion and Philosophy Collection. EBSCO. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.
Hartnett, Stephen J. "An Ugly and Sickening Business, Or, the Bush Legacy and the Decimation of Iraq." Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies 9.6 (2009): 780-86. Web. 22 Jan. 2011.
Stiglitz, Joseph. "The High Cost of the Iraq War." The Economists' Voice 3.3 (2006): 1-3. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.
Stone, Peter H. "Iraq Contractors on Defense." National Journal 39.9 (2007): 76-77. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.
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Denise Grady’s (2006) article sound a strong wake up call for the American government and for the American public to re-evaluate their guiding principles towards war in Iraq and the continued presence of the American soldiers in the Iraqi soil. Grady delineated the enormous damages the war had costs in not only monetary terms but also the future of thousands of promising young and talented men and women sent in the Iraq War; that had no clear benefits to them or the American people.
Matusek, Matt. “Purpose of Iraq war murky to Americans.” 17 September 2004. The Online Rocket. 1 April 2008.
troops and estimating the costs to society: Implications from the RAND invisible wounds of war study. Retrieved from http://www.rand.org/pubs/testimonies/CT321
Foulk, Vincent L. (2006) Battle of Fallujah: Occupation, Resistance and Stalemate in the War in Iraq.
Carr, Matthew.” Chapter 12: A Raid on the Path: 9/11 and the War on Terror.” Unknown Soldiers. 291-321.UK: Profile Books, 2006. History Reference Center. Web.25 Feb, 2014
Ells, Mark Van. 1998. "No Blood For Oil: Protesting the Persian Gulf War". Journal for the Study of Peace and Conflict
Corn, David. "A Failure to Find Iraq's Weapons Calls into Question the Justification for War." Iraq Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. William Dudley. Greenhaven Press, 2004. 44-50.
Hersh, Joshua. "Iraq War Cost $800 Billion, And What Do We Have To Show For It?"
Robert Greenwald’s documentary film, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteer, highlights how the private military contractors (PMCs) make the profit out of the Iraq War, and visualizes how the motive of profit-oriented PMCs has a negative impact on U.S. image. The film shows interviews of former PMCs employees and their families, Iraqi civilians, U.S. military staff, and more. The question has raised that how the U.S. government solve such tragedy and at the same time to fulfill its needy of manpower in Iraq. Accountability is not the only significant opportunity cost of U.S. government deploying PMCs to Iraq, but also losing oligopoly leverage of traditional military in the labor market of the business of
Is it really worth to spend a lot of money in military spending? Like the General Peter Schoomaker of the chief of staff of the army said “what does the army really cost?” (Ford, Nelson) there isn’t no easy answer for this because no military department had ever done a full report of the cost of holding its operations. It’s something you can’t put a real limit. How then should real costs be established? By ascertaing the capability necessary to fulfil the U.S security strategy and building budgets to fund those capabilities. We already owe a lot of money to other people. Why put us in more dept. The military believes cutting the defense budget will not aid economy, but they are wrong, cutting the military budget will help out a lot of people in the U.S. people will Have places to stay and have food on their tables. They will have jobs to provide for their family. We may be somewhat defenseless but who are they going to protect if they got nobody to protect. That is why it’s not worth throwing all the money to the government to provide the defense program. We should think twice and think about the people we are putting in
Gans-Boriskin, R. And R. Tisinger. (2005). The Bushlet Administration: Terrorism and War on The West Wing. The Journal of American Culture, 28(1): 100 – 113
The amount of corruption within the United States’ violent involvement in the Middle East is almost unreal. Unfortunately, the wars have been too real—half a million deaths in the first year of Iraqi Freedom alone (Rogers). These wars have been labeled--the violence, filtered-- to fit a specific agenda. Whether the deaths are deemed an acceptable loss in the name of national security, or as a devastating injustice, the reality doesn’t change. Lives have been lost. Lives that will never be brought back. The intention of wars is in part due to attacks on the twins towers on September 11th 2001. When the buildings fell, almost three thousand people died, according