On March 20th, 2011, the Iraq war will have gone on for 8 years. The war in Afghanistan is coming up on 10 years.
To date, almost 6 thousand US soldiers have been killed in the two wars. Twice as many as were killed on 9/11.
To date, we've spent over a trillion dollars on the two wars.
The current US military budget is between $1.01 and $1.35 trillion dollars for fiscal year 2010 if you include defense-related expenditures outside the Department of Defense budget. (1)
The US spends 19% of its budget on the military and 28% of estimated tax revenues. (1)
The US spends 40% of the world's total military spending. (1)
With Iraq sitting on the second largest oil reserves in the world, the decision to invade Iraq was made before 9/11. The reason to invade Iraq was fabricated. Without UN support and no major country onside except the UK, we forged ahead.
Saudi Arabia, which sits on the largest oil reserves in the world, has an agreement with the US to sell us their oil in US dollars in exchange for protection, military equipment and infrastructure. In addition, the US will keep the House of Saud in power, and the Saudis must deposit their money in US bank accounts (actually the US treasury).
Other recent military excursions include Kuwait, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.
The US is constructing 14 permanent military bases in Iraq.
The US has over 1000 military bases overseas. (2)
The government is looking to balance the budget by making cuts to non-military discretionary spending. Not only is military spending off the table but it seems that the Iraq-Afghanistan war budget is no longer temporary.
George Orwell had it right in '1984': War is Peace.
Peace out.
US Military Defense Spending (in $ billion) (3)
Year GDP Military defense-total
1996 7838.5 265.75
1997 8332.4 270.51
1998 8793.5 268.21
1999 9353.5 274.79
2000 9951.5 294.39
2001 10286.2 304.76
2002 10642.3 348.48
2003 11142.1 404.92
2004 11867.8 455.91
2005 12638.4 495.34
2006 13398.9 521.84
2007 14077.6 551.29
2008 14441.4 616.07
2009 14258.2 661.05
2010 14508.2 693.59
2011 15079.6 768.22 (estimated)
