General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhere did the $5tn spent on Afghanistan and Iraq go? Here's where...
Private military contractors outnumbered US troops on the ground during most of both conflicts. And defense industry stocks soared.
While Washington bickers about what, if anything, has been achieved after 20 years and nearly $5tn spent on forever wars, there is one clear winner: the US defense industry.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, the American military relied to an unprecedented degree on private contractors for support in virtually all areas of war operations. Contractors supplied trucks, planes, fuel, helicopters, ships, drones, weapons and munitions as well as support services from catering and construction to IT and logistics. The number of contractors on the ground outnumbered US troops most years of the conflicts. By the summer of 2020, the US had 22,562 contractor personnel in Afghanistan roughly twice the number of American troops.
The gravy train for the defense industry was also fueled by the way the wars were budgeted and paid for. Congress used emergency and contingency funding that circumvented the normal budget process. For the first decade of the conflict, the US used emergency appropriations, which are typically reserved for one-off crises such as floods and hurricanes. Detailed spending oversight was minimal. And because this type of spending is excluded from budget projections and deficit estimates, it enabled everyone to sustain the pretense that the wars would be over shortly.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/11/us-afghanistan-iraq-defense-spending
Permanut
(5,439 posts)Orwell was right.
Grasswire2
(13,564 posts)...ultimately the pockets of those who had the power to make the war happen.
We have to change that.
crickets
(25,896 posts)FakeNoose
(32,356 posts)It's the GOP-defense industry tag team, just keepin' it going year after year.
ramapo
(4,585 posts)It was a 20-year gravy train. All about the money
monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,418 posts)Too bad it was our money wasted. I can think of many other things we could have used it for. Imagine if we had this option for childcare, education, caregivers or to fight the war on hunger.
Why doesn't Congress use emergency and contingency funding that circumvents the normal budget process for the expanding needs we have now, as a result of the pandemic? I wonder.