America has been lied into too many wars. It’s cost us too much in money, credibility, and blood. We must remember the lies, and tell our children about them so that memory isn’t lost...
There is no love lost between Bush and TRump, but they are Republican birds of a feather. Money and oil for TRump and oil and money for Bush. Nothing else matters to them, especially the wasted lives of the service members killed or maimed.
They LOVE Saudi Arabia's rich leaders.
As a Cold Warrior, I knew 25 years ago that Bin Laden was coming---WE knew "it" was coming. Richard Clarke tried to tell the assholes in the Bush Administration what was about to happen. They should have been prosecuted, but Pelosi said move-on. Not. This. Time.
Break the Republican war, tax breaks, and debt pattern, we must. The youth have figured this out thanks to the "Thoms" that are podcasting. See you in the streets.
Since 9/11, the United States has spent about $8 trillion on its post‑9/11 wars and those wars have caused at least 4.5–4.7 million total deaths (direct + indirect), according to the most authoritative sources.
💵 Financial cost since 9/11
$5.8 trillion already spent
Department of Defense war operations: $2.1T
Homeland Security: $1.1T
Base DOD budget increases: $884B
Veterans’ medical care to date: $465B
Interest on war borrowing: $1T
$8 trillion total (including future obligations)
Brown University’s Costs of War project calculates that when future veteran care is included, the total cost of post‑9/11 wars reaches $8 trillion.
⚰️ Human cost since 9/11
Direct deaths:
~940,000 people killed directly in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, and other conflict zones.
Indirect deaths:
3.6–3.8 million deaths from war‑related disease, malnutrition, infrastructure collapse, and health‑system breakdown.
Total deaths:
4.5–4.7 million people killed (direct + indirect).
U.S. military deaths:
7,000+ U.S. service members killed across all post‑9/11 operations.
🧭 Interpretation
The post‑9/11 wars represent the most expensive sustained military effort in U.S. history. The human toll is overwhelmingly borne by civilians in conflict zones, with indirect deaths far exceeding battlefield casualties.
I will say it again, one more time. If education had been happening in the last century, the people would have had the knowledge, capacity, awareness, and conscience required to recognize the lies and to expose them and put a stop to them. The mythology of free but forced schooling has blinded virtually everyone to the failures and mis-education which makes people "servile and dumb" in John Holt's famous words. Rehashing it over and over without eradicating the authoritarian and reactionary influence is an exercise in futility.
Rational and well said, though I suspect the public mood was so angry that Bush could not have stopped an intervention in Afghanistan if he had tried. Having traveled across that country, and gone all through Iran and into Iraq in the early '70s I saw how this would end. At the time I said that if we got in and out fast and followed up with engineers, physicians, etc. maybe we could stabilize Afghanistan. But otherwise, a long ground war was impossible, the country is mountains and desert, and the people have been fighting invaders for millennia. But of course nobody would listen, any more than LBJ and McNamara did, not understanding the landscape, history and culture of Vietnam.
I thought we had learned from Vietnam, but obviously a new generation made the same mistakes, then doubled and tripled down with Iraq and Iran. Nothing new, as you say; in 1805 the U.S. was backing a claimant to the Tripoli throne. Then we betrayed him. Jefferson cut a deal and our forces went home. The only monument to that dirty episode is in the opening line of the Marines' Hymn.
Next, he will;
- MAKE HIS BONE-HEADED ZOMBIES PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO HIM
- TELL THEM TO CHEAT AT VOTE-TIME
- LUST AFTER TWO NYFD FIREMEN
- LIE ABOUT HIMSELF ON 9/11
- CLAIM HE NEVER BEAT UP A LITTLE GIRL WHEN SHE BIT HIS MUSHROOM
- INSIST HE'S NEVER FINGER-RAPED E. JEAN CARROLL
- PROTEST THAT HE NEVER RAPED HIS FIRST WIFE
- SAY HIS RECORD IN NY STATE IS CLEAN
- PROPOUND THAT NO WOMAN WHO ALLEGES MOLESTATION/RAPE IS PRETTY ENOUGH
- SAY HE'S NOT A RUSSIAN SPY
- TRY TO BUY VOTES LIKE ELON DID [5,000 VS ELON'S 1,000,000]
ON AND ON . . .
#VOTE for American values
#AWAY with them
#SAVE Ivanka's honor from her so-called dad
#W, Bill speak up, you cowards
-
"we could find ourselves in the middle of World War III..."
Whether beginning or middle, we are already in it Sensei.
True.
There is no love lost between Bush and TRump, but they are Republican birds of a feather. Money and oil for TRump and oil and money for Bush. Nothing else matters to them, especially the wasted lives of the service members killed or maimed.
They LOVE Saudi Arabia's rich leaders.
As a Cold Warrior, I knew 25 years ago that Bin Laden was coming---WE knew "it" was coming. Richard Clarke tried to tell the assholes in the Bush Administration what was about to happen. They should have been prosecuted, but Pelosi said move-on. Not. This. Time.
Break the Republican war, tax breaks, and debt pattern, we must. The youth have figured this out thanks to the "Thoms" that are podcasting. See you in the streets.
FYI from AI.
Since 9/11, the United States has spent about $8 trillion on its post‑9/11 wars and those wars have caused at least 4.5–4.7 million total deaths (direct + indirect), according to the most authoritative sources.
💵 Financial cost since 9/11
$5.8 trillion already spent
Department of Defense war operations: $2.1T
Homeland Security: $1.1T
Base DOD budget increases: $884B
Veterans’ medical care to date: $465B
Interest on war borrowing: $1T
$8 trillion total (including future obligations)
Brown University’s Costs of War project calculates that when future veteran care is included, the total cost of post‑9/11 wars reaches $8 trillion.
⚰️ Human cost since 9/11
Direct deaths:
~940,000 people killed directly in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, and other conflict zones.
Indirect deaths:
3.6–3.8 million deaths from war‑related disease, malnutrition, infrastructure collapse, and health‑system breakdown.
Total deaths:
4.5–4.7 million people killed (direct + indirect).
U.S. military deaths:
7,000+ U.S. service members killed across all post‑9/11 operations.
🧭 Interpretation
The post‑9/11 wars represent the most expensive sustained military effort in U.S. history. The human toll is overwhelmingly borne by civilians in conflict zones, with indirect deaths far exceeding battlefield casualties.
I will say it again, one more time. If education had been happening in the last century, the people would have had the knowledge, capacity, awareness, and conscience required to recognize the lies and to expose them and put a stop to them. The mythology of free but forced schooling has blinded virtually everyone to the failures and mis-education which makes people "servile and dumb" in John Holt's famous words. Rehashing it over and over without eradicating the authoritarian and reactionary influence is an exercise in futility.
Unpleasant as it may seem, we would benefit from finding ways to prosecute and punish powerful wrongdoers. Oh, wait…
Rational and well said, though I suspect the public mood was so angry that Bush could not have stopped an intervention in Afghanistan if he had tried. Having traveled across that country, and gone all through Iran and into Iraq in the early '70s I saw how this would end. At the time I said that if we got in and out fast and followed up with engineers, physicians, etc. maybe we could stabilize Afghanistan. But otherwise, a long ground war was impossible, the country is mountains and desert, and the people have been fighting invaders for millennia. But of course nobody would listen, any more than LBJ and McNamara did, not understanding the landscape, history and culture of Vietnam.
I thought we had learned from Vietnam, but obviously a new generation made the same mistakes, then doubled and tripled down with Iraq and Iran. Nothing new, as you say; in 1805 the U.S. was backing a claimant to the Tripoli throne. Then we betrayed him. Jefferson cut a deal and our forces went home. The only monument to that dirty episode is in the opening line of the Marines' Hymn.