Have (infinite) war, will travel

[unhappycamper]

Have (infinite) war, will travel
By Pepe Escobar
Nov 18, 2010

Anyone aware enough to think that Washington's goal is not to "win" the unwinnable AfPak quagmire but to keep playing its bloody infinite war game forever is now eligible for a personal stimulus package (in gold).

Let's review the recent evidence. All of a sudden, the White House, the Pentagon and the United States House of Representatives have all embarked on a new narrative: forget major US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011; let's move the goalpost to 2014.

~snip~

And all this while a 71-page Council on Foreign Relations report written by 25 "experts" gets a lot of traction in Washington. The report finds that the war costs a fortune, may not serve US interests and it's not "clear that the effort will succeed". Do people get paid to conclude this? The report also meekly suggests that depending on President Barack Obama's December strategic AfPak review, the US "should move quickly to recalculate its military presence in Afghanistan". It won't.

Let's try following the money. The AfPak war costs roughly US $7 billion a month - money that Washington needs to borrow from Beijing. Afghanistan in itself costs $65 billion a year - not counting NATO and humanitarian aid. Afghanistan's gross domestic product is only $22 billion. So Washington is spending three times the wealth of a whole country just to occupy it. Money for nothing. Properly invested, by this time Afghanistan would be the new Singapore.

AfPak costs nearly $100 billion a year. Surrealist as it may seem, polls indicate that for most Americans the US federal budget deficit is not a priority. No wonder no election candidates on November 2 emitted a peep about the ridiculously expensive quagmire.

[saigon68]

1. Lets move the Goal Posts---run up the Body Count

Madness by the "Present Occupant"

[Gravel Democrat]

2. ^^

Total Cost of Wars Since 2001
1,109,959,641,141
http://costofwar.com

[KharmaTrain]

3. War Keeps Unemployment Lower...

Imagine if we brought all our troops home (which I strongly support) along with all the mercenaries. That's several hundred thousand people fighting for a job in this awful market. I'm almost led to believe that our endless wars; besides being a profit center for the MIC is also being used to keep the unemployment roles smaller than they would be.