Imagine what could have been accomplished with the several trillion that we have spent

[niyad]

in Afghanistan and Iraq had that money been spent on improving people's lives and communities. Imagine what it could have done here.

[FoxNewsSucks]

1. No shit.

Instead it was pissed away on destruction and war profiteer billionaires

[vishnura]

2. Politicians & Corporations fleeced us, we got nothing in return.

[Comfortably_Numb]

3. The death merchant arms industry cleaned up.

[snot]

4. Here are some particulars re- what those dollars could have paid for instead:

Last edited Mon Aug 16, 2021, 04:45 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/trade-offs/ :

For Military in 2021 (just one year), taxpayers in the United States are paying $740 billion. Here's what those tax dollars could have paid for instead:

84.24 million Public Housing Units for 1 Year, or
16.94 million Jobs That Pay $15 Per Hour with Benefits for 1 Year, or
18.97 billion Coronavirus Vaccines for 1 Year, or
217.65 billion N95 Respirator Masks for 1 Year, or
9.16 million Elementary School Teachers for 1 Year, or
9.99 million Clean Energy Jobs Created for 1 Year, or....

(More at the link.)

[niyad]

6. Thank you for that handy, depressing link.

And I always remember, in looking at the pentagon budget, that we have no idea about the black ops budget. So, just in the figures we know, the war machine has sucked about 15 trillion out of our world in the last 20 years.

[TomWilm]

28. And still those $740 billion is just a few percent of the GDP ...

I would like it all converted to peaceful means, but technically it is "just" a minor part of the taxes - fx compared to the new $1 Trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.

[MyOwnPeace]

5. I was a principal in an elementary school......

during the "W" regime. This was after the Iraq invasion and our 'rebuilding' process.

A sign on my door said:

AFTER WE REBUILD IRAQ, CAN WE REBUILD OUR SCHOOLS?

I've long since retired - but they're still waiting..........

[niyad]

7. It made me sick then, still does. And we did not rebuild Iraq at all. The other day,

some of us here were discussing the looting of the Iraqi museum. Countless, priceless pieces of history and knowledge destroyed, with our help.

[malaise]

8. Apparently National Security doesn't mean making

citizens' lives secure

[niyad]

9. I know, how silly of us to think so,

[Maru Kitteh]

27. Excellent point malaise

[Blue Owl]

10. It's unfathomable

Both in terms of what was spent, and what we “got” out of it, which was… remind me again? Oh yeah, not much…

[niyad]

16. A lot of debt, a lot of destroyed lives??

[ffr]

11. In a way it already did, for the contractors and military contractors

They made a killing off the propaganda, I'm sure they helped promote.

[niyad]

17. Yes they managed to rake in fortunes.

[IronLionZion]

12. If we didn't spend those trillions, 620,000 Americans would die preventable deaths

oh wait...

[niyad]

18. . . .

[erronis]

13. Not to forget how many other's lives we terminated with those trillions.

Of course, they are just "others".

That's why we hire young men to pull the triggers. They are so wrapped up in their own immortality that they don't care about others.

[niyad]

19. Sadly, you are quite correct.

[Tommymac]

14. Just Imagine.

[niyad]

21. Thank you.

[jaxexpat]

15. Unfortunately, the answer to your question is disappointing.

Those funds would have lain dormant until targeted personal profit could be made from their investment. Money, just lying around, doesn't move without the approval of "responsible" persons.

[niyad]

20. You are assuming that the money would not have been spent, given a different

mindset?

[erronis]

24. Agree with jaxexpat. The money only moves if there are personal profits to be made.

Especially within the DOD. There is very little "common good" money being spent.

Remember the last time a full audit was done in the DOD?

(Answer: never)

[jaxexpat]

31. So long as people of no good will hold the purse strings....

those funds will have no good purpose. Until we, in our public servants, value selflessness over success and "growth", the spending of our national treasure is just another exercise in dissipation.

When a problem/challenge rears up on the horizon, our government's response is to throw money at it. Either trying to buy it away or propagandize it out of the American discourse. Do we, as a people, agree with that?

Obviously we don't. I think that's why Joe Biden prevailed so overwhelmingly. With the removal from office and relevance of the current GQP hot-head crowd, we might change but it will still be swimming uphill. There is an intransigent laziness of thought in the minds of too many 21st century white Americans. Perhaps it's from wasting too much time processing the fraud so prevalent in our daily lives of internet perusal and cell-phone addiction. They must recognize current priorities and then help to improve things or accept their irrelevance and get out of the way.

[ancianita]

22. Tuition free college for two generations for less than one trillion of that, if you figure

$500,000 X 20 million college students over four years, or 16 years of a generation = $39,200,000,000 X 2 generations = $78.5 billion. That's it. Two generations, smarter and in the black.

[roamer65]

23. All because of a broken election in 2000.

Fucking stupid electoral college.

Same goes for 2016.

[ashredux]

25. A LOT OF FOLKS GOT RICH!!!! That was what kept us there...

The War Machine needs a War for goodness sake…

[yaesu]

26. and it is many multitudes more than Afghanistan's GDP.

[rambler_american]

29. Just imagine

if corporate and political greedheads had actually cared enough about America and Americans to use that money to make improvements that would benefit all of us instead of a few of them. Yeah, that'll happen. Cue the flying pigs.

[BobTheSubgenius]

30. Even if TPTB just left the money "in the bank," so to speak.

Worst case scenario (assuming careful adults being in change) - $3 T less debt, and concomitantly lowered debt service. Not a bad thing, just in and of itself.