Can ANYONE give me 1 REAL BENEFIT we received for the $1.2 trillion spent on war?

[BigBearJohn]

How did the American people benefit?

What did we ACTUALLY get for our money?


... or do I really want to know?

OR to put it another way:

What could we have done with $1.2 trillion
if we spent it on the AMERICAN PEOPLE?

[Fuzz]

1. Own any stock in McDonnell Douglas?

[MichiganVote]

2. We saved GE from having to pay taxes. Imagine what could have happened--the horror.

[NYC_SKP]

3. Um, fewer soldiers guns tanks and bombs cluttering up our military bases?

I'm really stretching and comin' up empty...

I got nothin'.

:shrug:

[Psephos]

4. it kept millions of people employed

Pretty slim pickings, ain't it?

[JaneQPublic]

5. War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

Say it again.

[BigBearJohn]

7. Would make a great song! :) As true today as it ever was. (sigh)

[Rage for Order]

6. We got to rotate our stock of bullets, bombs, and missiles

After all, they had been sitting in dusty warehouses for a decade; who knew if they would still operate properly? Now all of our stored ammo and explosives will have been produced within the past 6-12 months, thereby ensuring a shelf life of at least another 10 years.

:shrug:

That's all I got.

[dkf]

8. Employed thousands of young people and scarred them emotionally and physically for life.

If they came back home.

[Newest Reality]

9. The MIC

was overjoyed. The contractors made great profits. Politicians became richer and assured themselves lucrative careers after they left their "low paying" offices.

It is all good for the people who are making more than most of us can ever hope to imagine. What more do you expect from a country or world that insists that profit is the sum bonum of our existence as a species? Nothing, not one human life or that of a large mass of us, stands above the very holy writ of the profit motive today. The ability of our planet to sustain the lifeforms that it had given birth to and now nurtures cannot stand against the ultimate and undeniable ascendancy of profit for a few.

Most of us will die, and there will be much suffering, as long as we continue to subscribe to and support a system that holds those kinds of values above life and sustainability for our species and the rest. That's not including meaning and happiness or stability and security on the individual basis -- ideas that have no place or purpose in the pursuit of profit as the be-all and end-all of our time here.

[david13]

10. The soldiers get a paycheck? Some people work for the contractors.

The corporations return super dividends to the stockholders, not that those guys need the money.
Other than that, no benefit. But people are stupid. They think we are "safer" or more "free" because of it.
Baloney.
dc

[Angry Dragon]

11. Did someone tell you that you would get a benefit??

[joshcryer]

12. Nothing. Take it up with Bush.

[sharesunited]

13. If you're talking about Libya

then dampening demand for West Texas Crude by the European Union is a possible benefit.

Still, gas is four fucking dollars per gallon.

Our Department of Energy could be helping that spike with the futures market and the SPR.

But clearly they aren't.

[Sonoman]

14. You can feel a whole lot goddanged safer, that's what.

And a whole lotta other good stuff.

But maybe that's just me...

Sonoman

[leftstreet]

15. Do you see al Qaeda's Naval Fleet on our shores? Huh?

What're you some kinda commie?

K&R

[Raster]

21. I did not realize the CIA had issued Al-Qaeda ships...who knew?

[BrightKnight]

16. They could have had the Saddam guy taken out for less than $1.2 T.

The CIA could have done it in house for less than that. You can mine a lot of oil sand for $1.2 T.

[begin_within]

25. Maybe we could have just bought Iraq

Probably Saddam would have agreed to a trillion. Hell I would have, were I him.

[Mimosa]

17. USA's only remaining 'major manufacturing' are heavy arms

I suppose that is partly why our kids, brothers, cousins, husbands and wives get to join up and risk their lives and health fighting those Arabs. :(

These wars and why we are fighting them becomes more and more inexplicable.

There is so much we could have dome with the trillions spent on wars. Maybe we could have developed green fuels?

[Common Sense Party]

18. Cheap oil...er, um

Damn. I got nothin'.

[BklynThirtyThree]

19. bought a lot of houses in the vineyard

for exec's at Lockheed Martin

[Raster]

20. The warmongers: the MIC and Lords of Money got richer.

And let's not forget the Petroleum Mafia. Oh, and the international drug cartels... I could go on and on.

[lonestarnot]

22. prosthetic device improvement.

:cry:

[Gravel Democrat]

23. "What could we have done with $1.2 trillion if we spent it on the AMERICAN PEOPLE?"

some of these, which would have paid twice because "we" wouldn't have to care about the oil:



Olmedilla Photovoltaic Park, Spain



World's largest photovoltaic power plants are presented in the table below. The list is divided into tables - each table includes 50 power plants. For each listed plant basic data is available (power, country, location, basic description etc.). Currently list with 1000 large photovoltaic plants is available (peak power > 2 MWp).

http://www.pvresources.com/en/top50pv.php

How many of the top 50 photovoltaic farms are in the US?

We're better at "humanitarian bombing"

[I Drink Water]

24. Iraqis got Universal Health Care, passed by Bush and the Republicans.

[KeepItReal]

26. +1000

Socialized medicine for our subjects... But not for us

[_ed_]

27. The only people that benefit are Obama's corporate buddies

in the military-industrial complex. Check out GE's military holdings, then check out the fact that EVERY MSNBC anchor is in favor of Libya.