Friday, June 23, 2017
Why Does
Donald Trump Insist on More Military Spending?
If you think we spend too much on our military as it is (more
that the next eight countries combined), you might be shocked to hear President
Trump has asked for an increase in military spending by 10%,
or $54 billion. Where is all this money going to come from? What will it be
used for? Since Republicans are not known for wanting to raise taxes, the money has to come from cuts to other
allocations in the budget.
On the chopping block are funds that would go to the Department
of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health and
Human Services and other federal programs — agencies that serve the needs of
the American public.
If Donald Trump really wants to take an “America First”
approach, why is he slashing our domestic budget and putting money into a war
machine that only continues to inflame tensions around the world? We engage in
wars that never seem to end, are tax dollars are squandered, innocent lives are
lost in the process and these military interventions are certainly not making
us more safe at home.
We are involved in military operations all over the world. Many
of these conflicts are not easily summarized, but let’s take a look at some of
America’s conflicts and where they stand, through the prism of this proposed
military spending increase.
Iraq
What did we get out of invading Iraq? Saddam Hussein is no
longer in power. For that, we lost almost 4,500 American lives, and over 30,000 were
wounded. We don’t keep track of the Iraqis we killed, but
the estimates.
Major combat operations ended in 2011, but our service members still get killed there and for the
Iraqi people, the war rages on. Under Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime, sectarian
violence was minimized. When we removed him it exploded, and the unintended
consequence is that we unleashed sectarian violence.
Another unanticipated result of our invasion of Iraq was the creation of ISIS. It was
at the US prison in Iraq called Camp Bucca where embittered Sunni prisoners,
including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, created ISIS. Now we are spending billions
trying to defeat the very force we helped to create.
Afghanistan
We invaded in late 2001 and are still there. It is America’s longest war, and
there is no end in sight. We removed the Taliban government, eventually killed
Osama bin Laden — found in “allied” Pakistan — and set up a government that is
at least officially friendly toward us, but there is now a resurgence of the
Taliban.
For that, we lost 2,300 service members with about 17,600 wounded. It is
not uncommon for our service members to be killed by
Afghan soldiers who are supposed to be working with us. Again, this is all
paid for by the United States taxpayer. And the bill is about the shoot up even
more, with the Trump administration sending another 4,000 troops to join in
this endless war.
Syria
Syria has been reduced to ruins by not only us, but also by
Russia, ISIS, the Syrian government and other warring factions within and
without. The Trump administration’s recent cruise missile attack on the Assad
regime forces, followed by the U.S. shooting of a Syrian fighter jet and
Iranian drones, puts the U.S. military at even greater risk of direct
confrontation not only with Assad but Iran and Russia. The number of Syrians
killed, wounded and forced to flee their homes is astronomical, while the idea
of a political solution seems more and more remote.
Lost Blood and Treasure
The National Priorities Project, using information obtained from
the United States budget, has drawn some conclusions about how much we pay for
these wars. We pay $615,482 per hour for
ongoing operations against ISIS. Afghanistan costs us $4 million per hour
(without counting the new troops being sent there), and the remaining
operations in Iraq cost us $117,000.00 per hour. It has concluded we pay $8.36
million per hour for all the wars since 2001.
What else could we do with all that money? The National Priorities Project
illustrates how it could be spent to help our own people and our own
economy:
·
Millions of teachers could be hired.
·
Millions of jobs could be created in poverty-stricken
communities.
·
Our ailing infrastructure could be remodeled and rebuilt.
·
Scholarships could be funded for students who can’t afford
college.
·
Our military veterans could receive the care they deserve.
The list goes on.
Americans are tired of war, yet Donald Trump’s budget sends an unfortunate but clear
message. He is willing to cut funds that help the poor, protect the
environment, and promote the arts — things that generally keep us happy and
safe — in order to fund a never-ending, ever-growing war machine. He’s taking
money from Meals on Wheels to buy billion-dollar bombers.
Fortunately, Trump’s budget is only a request. Congress has to
approve it, and even though the president enjoys a Republican-majority House
and Senate, it does not mean his budget will go through. Yes, Congress members
gets pressure from the administration, the Pentagon and the companies that
profit from making weapons. But they also get pressure from their constituents,
who are demanding that our money goes to community needs, not down a black hole
of endless war. You can sign a petition to Congress here. Let’s
see who they listen to.
·
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share
Alike 3.0 License
·
Medea Benjamin,
co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK:
Women for Peace, is the author of the new book, Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the
U.S.-Saudi Connection. Her previous books include: Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote
Control; Don’t Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran
Woman Speaks from the Heart, and (with Jodie Evans) Stop the Next War Now (Inner Ocean
Action Guide). Follow her on Twitter: @medeabenjamin
·
Kate Harveston is
a journalist and a member of the CODEPINK communications team. Follow her on
Twitter: @KateHarveston
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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