Wars could cost between 4 and 6 trillion

[Makalakumu]

http://www.stripes.com/blogs/stripe...-could-cost-4-trillion-to-6-trillion-1.120054

The authors of the book "The $3 Trillion War" noted in a conference call on Wednesday that when they first released their findings two years ago, the estimates were widely criticized as being too high. Now, the researchers believe they may have been too low.


Joseph Stiglitz, who received the 2000 Nobel Prize for Economics, and Linda Bilmes, a public policy professor at Harvard University, said the number of veterans seeking post-combat medical care and the cost of treating those individuals is about 30 percent higher than they initially estimated. That, combined with increases in the cost of military medical care and the lagging economy, will likely push the true long-term cost of the war over the $4 trillion mark.


"This may be more of a crisis than the Medicare and Social Security problems we have looming," said House Veterans Affairs Chairman Bob Filner, D-Calif. "It rivals both in the potential impact. This is another entitlement we've committed ourselves to, and it could break the bank."

Wars are always more expensive then we are initially told. Those of you who would like to see their country survive into the future, need to pay attention and look at this from a different perspective.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

http://www.stripes.com/blogs/stripe...-could-cost-4-trillion-to-6-trillion-1.120054



Wars are always more expensive then we are initially told. Those of you who would like to see their country survive into the future, need to pay attention and look at this from a different perspective.

I'm eager to hear your suggestion.

 

[Ken Morgan]

Come on is that really surprising?

Salaries and food for 100 000 troops in the field will cost you tens upon tens of millions a day.

That doesn’t take into account fuel, equipment, ammunition, medical care, pensions, and a tonne of other stuff a modern military needs.

Plus how much of this is creative accounting? These soldiers have to be paid, fed and housed anyway. The supply ships that are making a half dozen stops there and back, which account does all those expenses get put under?

If the US is ever to target its deficit and debt, there are going to be some serious military cutbacks coming.

 

[Makalakumu]

I'm eager to hear your suggestion.

If you are facing bankruptcy because you are spending too much, what do you do?

Stopping the wars and giving up our empire isn't going to be easy, but what choice is there?

Americans can't afford the warfare/welfare state.

We have to cut spending.

 

[Big Don]

Going to reorder this a bit:

If you are facing bankruptcy because you are spending too much, what do you do?
We have to cut spending.

Great, lets cut social programs, lets kill the US Postal Service, it is bleeding money anyways, cut congressional pay, cut foreign aid.

Stopping the wars and giving up our empire isn't going to be easy, but what choice is there?

OR, actually BE an empire, like you and others continue to accuse us of (as a lie or because of stupidity) Take over a few countries, (Mexico comes to mind) tax them, exploit their natural resources (Mexico has VAST natural resources that go untapped because of incompetence and or corruption) better the lives of their peoples. I mean, if we're going to be slammed for empire building either way, build a G_D EMPIRE!

Americans can't afford the warfare/welfare state.

and yet, you and those like you continue to vote for those who campaign on expanding the welfare/nanny state...

 

[Makalakumu]

Going to reorder this a bit:
Great, lets cut social programs, lets kill the US Postal Service, it is bleeding money anyways, cut congressional pay, cut foreign aid. OR, actually BE an empire, like you and others continue to accuse us of (as a lie or because of stupidity) Take over a few countries, (Mexico comes to mind) tax them, exploit their natural resources (Mexico has VAST natural resources that go untapped because of incompetence and or corruption) better the lives of their peoples. I mean, if we're going to be slammed for empire building either way, build a G_D EMPIRE!
and yet, you and those like you continue to vote for those who campaign on expanding the welfare/nanny state...

I'm willing to change my opinion on things once I learn new information. Are you?

 

[Big Don]

I'm willing to change my opinion on things once I learn new information. Are you?

You are?
Not sure why I don't believe that. Oh, wait, this is why.

 

[Makalakumu]

You are?
Not sure why I don't believe that. Oh, wait, this is why.

So, any time I post something in the Study, are you going to post this?

Btw - still growing

http://www.ae911truth.org/

 

[elder999]

So, any time I post something in the Study, are you going to post this?

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!"

:lfao:

 

[Makalakumu]

I guess it's a conspiracy theory that the government is going bankrupt and that the wars are part of it...

Thanks for setting me straight folks...

 

[Makalakumu]

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!"

:lfao:

Look what happened to Ahab...

 

[Big Don]

I guess it's a conspiracy theory that the government is going bankrupt and that the wars are part of it...

Thanks for setting me straight folks...

Well, you said:

I'm willing to change my opinion on things once I learn new information. Are you?

In response, I posted some information, that while not new to you, now, was at one point and you weren't willing to change your opinion once exposed to it.

 

[Makalakumu]

In response, I posted some information, that while not new to you, now, was at one point and you weren't willing to change your opinion once exposed to it.

How do you know that this is true other then that it confirms what you previously thought?

That is assuming you previously thought it and the well crafted message didn't just Tetris into some well crafted bias that has been laid down through years and years of programming...

Is like a door that can swing through the frame and smack you in the face.

Like debunking the debunking. LOL!

Incidentally, I've gone around the fire pole on this a number of times, just check the link I posted above and follow the number as it grows. Think about it.

Anyway, what we are discussing the essentially the fact that all empires lead to murder/suicides. The more the state murders, the more it kills itself. 9/11 is a natural outgrowth of that precedent and the subsequent "permanent" war flows from the same sewer.

 

[elder999]

Like debunking the debunking. LOL!.

Dude.

The author of that book is a theology professor?

 

[Sukerkin]

In the final analysis, war is not a paying proposition anymore. Be at war too long and your country pays the economic as well as the sociological price.

That's what happeded to the British Empire. We strode the globe, reaping the rewards (as well as doing some good along with the ill) but then we had two huge wars. At the end of the first half of the second one, as well signing away future income as a means of paying our erstwhile colony for the help negotiated, we also agreed to cede our influence into American hands.

That was that for us.

It happens to all empires, no matter what form they take (physical occupation or political/economic manipulation) - war feeds certain home industries, which feed war, which increases the influence of those industries etc.

In the end the structure collapses.

How to get off the tiger without getting mauled is a trick that noone seems to have discovered yet .

 

[Tez3]

You can stop the Afghan war tomorrow but you will still be paying for the thousands of severly injured service people who can no longer work and will need medical treatment for the rest of their lives, that's something that must not be reneged on.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

If you are facing bankruptcy because you are spending too much, what do you do?

A false choice. We are not facing bankruptcy. Technically, a sovereign nation cannot bankrupt.

Stopping the wars and giving up our empire isn't going to be easy, but what choice is there?

We have no empire.

Americans can't afford the warfare/welfare state.

We have to cut spending.

True that. I note that social services spending exceeds defense spending.

 

[Sukerkin]

We have no empire.

Maybe not in the sense that we {the British} did, no. But America does fulfil the de facto role of an Empire in the present incarnation of the Great Game.

In simple terms, 'Empire' is about exerting influence and exacting profit external to your own shores. This can be either by occupation or economic/political manipulation as I said a little earlier.

It's not necessarily a perjorative word, altho it does, somewhat incorrectly, tend to get used that way sometimes.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Maybe not in the sense that we {the British} did, no. But America does fulfil the de facto role of an Empire in the present incarnation of the Great Game.

That being the case, it is the judgment of history that all Empires fall, without exception. There would seem to be no other resolution. If what the USA is equates to the functional aspects of 'Empire', then we are eventually doomed. Current spending on foreign wars makes no difference, the end will be the same either way.

 

[Sukerkin]

Aye, that is kind of the point I was meandering towards and is what I meant when I said previously that noone has yet discovered the way of getting off the 'tiger' unscathed.

It's an interesting connundrum to ponder but it, sadly for all powers that wield authority of Imperial scope, doesn't appear to have an easily comprehensible answer {otherwise you'd hope that someone would have come up with one by now }.