June 7, 2008
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(One of) The Cost(s) of War
In the time it takes you to read this sentence out loud at a normal speaking rate, American taxpayers will have spent just about $50,000 on the war in Iraq.
If you're still with me, and finish this second sentence, the war will have cost American taxpayers roughly another $40,000.
Let's just make it a total of $140,000 with this third short paragraph. That's right. $5,000 a second, according to Bill Moyers last night.
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Now imagine what life would be like if, instead of engaging in wanton and gratuitous destruction, we had spent that same $5,000 a second for the past five years on research into alternative energy sources, so that perhaps - just perhaps - our far-seeing "leaders" didn't feel the need to exert an illusory and ultimately futile military control over the Middle East.
Pssst.....DO something.
Comments (25)
RYC---a photoshopped picture of Robin Quivers...found it on Google images & stole it
Should have had alternative fuel in the wake of the Seventies...but http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0823,brief-history-of-gas,458738,9.html THAT is the way of this cuntry
Off to the races
wow,,, well,,, you know i have nothing against a little sport,,,, but thats awfully expensive,,,, seems like wed just use knives dont it...
think about this,,,, you get in your expensive jet,,, fill up with expensive jet fuel,,, fly 700 miles to locate your target, pull the trigger on your expensive smart bomb gun,,,,, boom,,,, you gottem,,,,, fly back the 700 miles and have the fox reporters ready to take your pic for your exploits,,,,, far out,,, but expensive,,, and there is undetermined waste here,,,
lets go back to the target,,, there it is,,, blown to smitherens,,, all gone,,, maybe a foot here,,, a finger there,,, who was there? hard to tell aint it,,, and expensive.
wouldnt your rather just slip thru the back window with your knife in hand,,, they dont cost much,,, well,, relatively speaking,,, take out all the ugly scumbags present,,, one at a time,, or all at once,,, depending on your expertise with a knife,,,,
wait,,, whats that huddled in the corner??? a hot chick??? hard to tell,,, whip off that face covering with a flip of your razor sharp blade and have a look,,,, bingo,,,, shes yours,,,, take her out the window you crawled in thru,,,,
everybodys happy,,, and you didnt waste a penny,,,,
i guess thats not the way our powers that be like to do things tho,,,, hahahahahaha,,, not everybody is as brilliant as me i guess.
but you know that already.
nice post,,, and informative,,, it is expensive isnt it,,, reckon were digging up gold at that rate to back up what were spending,,, or is the dollar devaluating at every launch of a smart bomb.
how many does it take to buy a barrel of oil today? how many will it take to buy a barrel of oil tomorrow? (dollars that is)
Um... er... note to self.... do not read other's comments.... you may get weirded out.
Great post and I wholeheartedly agree. Kudos and wild applause!
Imagine. But then, what would become of Blackwater?
As long as there are men, there will be wars. Reading your post and the comments cost enough to build a water and sanitation system for a whole village. At one time, I actually believed that man could achieve world peace. But that was a long time ago.
@Lanateyony - I hope you meant, "As long as there are HUMANS, there will be wars."
Hillary has been sounding and behaving just as warlike as any male. I just wish that humans could take a step backward and question the basic assumptions under which they operate.
Of course I used the term "man" meaning generically. You think I'm a female chauvanistic pig? LOL
TWO THUMBS UP!!
let's! write, call, email anyone we can.
will they listen?
$5K/second? Let's do that math!
It means $300K/minute. $18M/hour. $432M/day. $12.96B/month.
Can't say that math is too far off. It's within an order of magnitude for sure.
Could you or I figure out better ways to spend the money after the month or two it takes to extract our troops? I think so.
I'm all for the US collecting the cost of freeing the Iraqi people from their dictatorship then cutting them loose to do as they please. The US can regain the cost of the Iraq War with interest via Iraqi oil then pull out entirely.
A free Iraq may annoy Israel, but it presents little threat to the US. Israel as a nuclear power with $4B+ in US handouts/years is a destabilizing factor in the Middle East. I makes many more populous Arab nations hate the use, and incites violence in the Middle East. Let's save money and kiss Israel as a Zionist nation goodbye. Israel as a non-terrorist, democratic state would not make too many waves.
We don't need to research alternative fuel sources. We already know so many different cheaper, cleaner, more efficient ways to fuel our lives and our vehicles, we could stop driling for oil today. But the patents are owned by government subsidized oil producers and oil-dependent commodity manufacturers. We should stop our government from interfering with the natural flow of the market, it would solve so many things.
Or how about spending a portion of it on education? Keeping kids off the streets?
That can't possibly be true, is it? That just blows me away! I'm wondering the same thing you are. What if an hour of that money was used to provide for the homeless? Damn!
Darling, what exactly do you want me to do?
@blonde_apocalypse - It's not quite so simple, is it? Doesn't the "natural flow of the market" involve corporations such as oil companies exercising their "free speech" as legal "persons" by inundating our politicians with lobbyists, bribes, and other perquisites so that the politicians will endorse the status quo through inaction and through various types of subsidies to said corporations? The "natural flow of the market" is toward maximizing profit for shareholders and contrary to self-regulation which would increase options and protections for the public at large. Halliburton, unregulated and unsupervised, is NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS going to give the American taxpayer his/her money's worth in terms of providing the best possible service in Iraq at the lowest possible price.
@SaadiaOnline - That's a valid question. Here are a few things you can and should do:
1) Let your elected representatives know in the strongest possible terms that you want our occupying troops out of Iraq NOW, you don't want the U.S. to meddle militarily in Iran's internal affairs or in fact anywhere in the Middle East, and you want America to clean its own house, morally and economically speaking, rather than pursue an imperialist policy abroad.
2) Let your elected representatives know, in the strongest possible terms, that you want your tax money spent on universal health care, a sustainable energy policy, repair of our nation's infrastructure, cleanup of toxic waste, and real assistance to the poor and the elderly. Tell them that you're more than willing to have your taxes increased if necessary to pay for these things.
3) Organize your friends and neighbors to join you in contacting their elected representatives, engaging in non-violent protest, and committing civil disobedience.
4) Monitor your consumerism. Consume as little as possible beyond the very most basic necessities of life.
5) When you do make a consumer choice, make it on the basis of encouraging sustainable, "green" alternatives. Purchase a hybrid vehicle. Build a solar- and wind-powered home. Grow an organic vegetable garden. Ride a bike rather than drive if you can.
6) Basically, just be an engaged and involved citizen. Hold your elected representatives' feet to the fire at all times. Utilize your power as a consumer to boycott companies whose policies are destructive to the planet and its residents, and to encourage companies who are working to make this a better world. In all of your life choices, look beyond immediate self-gratification to the type of world you want your grandchildren to inhabit.
Hope that helps.
@Eccentrique - I appreciate your using Haliburton as an example. The reason Haliburton is so powerful is because it is subsidized, ie: it is using tax money to conduct private business. The reason businesses flood our legislators with "lobbyists, bribes and other perquisites" is because those legislators are authorized to reciprocate the bribes, ie: subsidization. If legislators didn't have tax money to throw around, these businesses would stop those behaviours. You've started with a flawed construct and then argued about why it doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work the way it is.
@blonde_apocalypse - It would be nice if we could have the definitive discussion of this, and arrive at a consensus once and for all. I wonder what constructs YOU start with, and in what way they're flawed.
All I know is that given a choice between admittedly flawed government oversight and the unregulated "free market", I'll take the checks and balances inherent in the democratic system of government every time. Subsidies are not at all synonymous with oversight, but EVERY bit of legislation carries within it some aspect of public policy - whose efforts the government wants to reward, and whose efforts the government wants to discourage.
@Eccentrique - "given a choice between admittedly flawed government oversight and the unregulated "free market", I'll take the checks and balances inherent in the democratic system of government every time"
This is the root, and sum total, of our difference of opinion. Any discussion we had on the topic would eventually come down to that very simple statement. You distrust people individually but trust people in groups. I distrust groups but trust individuals.
@blonde_apocalypse - But a corporation is a GROUP, my dear.
It is an amazingly sad thing to fathom that, in thousands of years of history and hundreds of years of "civilization" we have yet to come up with a way to resolve things without blowing peoples heads off. As cliche as it may sound I believe that it still all boils down to money and greed - 2 things which I believe are going to drive our world out of existence eventually.
Hey you. I noticed that you visited me...and I haven't had a visit from you in a while. I wondered if you forgot about me...thought about that two days ago...and look at you! Just poppin' by right after I'm thinkin' about you. Projected air waves I say. How's life treatin' ya? Still want the digits? Peace and blessings.
RYC---Tim Russert never impressed me all that much. Certainly no Edward R. Murrow---thought YOU would be one of the people to pick up on the Ted Baxter picture
The thing i liked about Russert was that he's NOT Limbaugh or O'Reilly...it's amazing that by today's standards you judge media on what it's not rather than on what it IS...Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances....just imagine...they put the freedom of the press in the FIRST Amendment and like everythang else mentioned there, it's all just show now
That is a lot of money that no one has to be spent trying to put out a forest fire somewhere else when their own house is on fire.
Bisoux.
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