The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost most Americans nothing

  • 📰 TheEconomist
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 25 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 13%
  • Publisher: 92%

United States Headlines News

United States Latest News,United States Headlines

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan seem remote to many Americans, which helps explain why civil-military relations are so distant

of Connecticut trod on a booby-trapped bomb in southern Afghanistan the explosion could be heard 13 miles away. It blew off his left leg, much of his right one, left his left arm “hanging by threads” and smashed his right arm. “I’m bleeding out and about to die,” he recalls thinking before he blacked out. His field-medic turned away to work on lesser casualties. But another marine sergeant clapped tourniquets on what remained of Mr Dwyer and hauled him to a helicopter.

Media coverage of the participants in America’s interminable 9/11 wars tends to focus on the health and social problems many face. Of the 2.7m who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, 35% are said by the Department of Veterans Affairs to have a disability. That includes many with post-traumatic stress, which makes sense: patrolling built-up areas of Iraq at the height of its violence was especially horrific. And the concussive effects of blast injuries are liable to be long-term.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

The job of a CEO of a company/a country should only be focused on the BIG PICTURE, the RIGHT TRACK n RIGHT DIRECTION. Executors are the ones to use details to ensure correct execution.

The American Government has a penchant for meddling in the internal affairs of other countries in the name of human rights and ostensibly to maintain peace in the region. The real reason is it wouldn't care a damn if there was no oil in that region. MiddleEast

Especially if he is not benefitting financially directly.

Absolutely nothing

Profits for American arms manufacturers?

. America's road to recognition of an end to her long-standing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is littered with nativism, alienation and dissolution of multilateral treaties under realDonaldTrump. None of this, like the wars themselves, has achieved anything.

Lol, what a long winded way of saying Trump was right.

He is, at best, a broken clock on this one (and doesn't care about any answer, nor would he understand one). Plenty of better people have raised this, thoughtfully.

So why did you try to justify the war in Iraq?

Oil

Safety for the country...

How so propaganda

WFaqiri You mean Americans lives are nothing

Reinstate the military draft and so many foreign policy decisions, rightly or wrongly, would be disputed by the nation's masses.

hahahaa....... funny!!!

Except their humanity for funding the deaths of mostly innocent people. No biggie.

Iran is the next victim.

What a completely idiotic take. Those wars are why we have crumbling infrastructure. They're why our public schools are underfunded. They're the reason we 'can't afford' for everyone to have healthcare.

Hello Sir 😎 Palace Subscribe 😥 Now Dj_Akash_TM😀 Youtube Channel.🤔

Only if you don’t consider all the taxpayers money directed towards the military

Apart from the twin towers.

😂😂😂 what a mountain of BS.

Talk to the people of Fallujah about the cost. Children are either stillborn or severely deformed. USA, USA, USA.

This is a very tone deaf article. Especially right before veterans day. I have lost friends in this conflict. I have lost friends to suicide because of what they have seen and done.

Even if it’s debt financed, it’s trillion of dollars in opportunity cost

Many of us think a lot about our troops and it bothers us Many of us know service people who have been there and can see the wars affect To bad you don’t fight for better treatment at the VA for them. Thank God Trump did, not Obama not the Democrats.

You are shallow to say that

Embarrassed that I ever subscribed to this garbage rag.

BULLSHIT! I lost a good friend due to this war. That friend never met his daughter. You are fake news.

Beltway magazine completely unaware of anyone or anything outside it's own bubble. Douche Bags.

Can far right and left please band together and burn this centrist warhawk propaganda rag to the ground? My ciggy needs a light.

I know quite a few families without sons, daughters, spouses, and parents. I think that is a pretty high cost. We can argue if it was worth it... Or a bad idea, but not everything is about dollars.

I would trade everyone at the economist to bring back all the KIAs

Que opina don rubengluengas

It got all of yiur attention including mine it’s call distraction from life we all know it’s coat everyone all amounts of pain, money and loss and no one President is responsible for making the calls take yiur anger out on congress economic failures

Boi

But they cost the lives of 100s of 1000s of people in those countries....

Honest question. Has anyone commenting on this actually read the article?

Are you tome deaf or just hungry for a click?

You should probably just end your organization. Like, yesterday.

god damn you

Yeah right. The wife who lost her husband, mom who lost his son, children who lost their father do not come under “Most Americans”. What a shame

except for the money and the dead and the wounded and all those suffering PTSD and the damage to our international reputation

Nothing is hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan lives, thousands of American lives and limbs, millions in Veterans benefits and care over time to say nothing of the ill-will we've engendered by the continued colonialism and killing of civilians. But, you were saying?

It has cost American lives! Another stupid war.

Ridiculous article

no. they continue because of the money that private military contractors, oil companies, drug cartels, and pharma corps make off of it. money that was initially our taxes, that is.

Ya the money cost is big BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SOLDIERS THAT NEVER CAME BACK. I think the human lives lost count for something. Or are we back to saying f&% veterans now its not veteran's day.

Everything cost Americans nothing as long as they are printing the currency in which their debts are.

Didn’t realize lives have a price tag. Well no need to know how much I’m worth to this country. Cause apparently it’s ZERO!

6300 dollars per US citizen per CBO

Go f**** yourself ! I have family that died in the Iraq war for oil & made up WMD’s Amortizing $7trillion +++ in the Iraq war wasn’t worth a SINGLE LIFE “Most Americans” know it was ALL a fraud & costing more us each day The Economist needs to Break out a new calculator

Not true, all Americans are paying - crumbling infrastructure, limited healthcare, failing schools, increased debt, out of control prescription drug costs, skills deficit, delayed efforts to modernize our military, technology gap just to name a few. Oh yes. Americans are paying!

Over a Trillion Dollars and the average America didn't have to pay a dime ? . How does that work .

incredible smooth brain take

What a joke this is

More than 7000 Americans have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands have permanent injury. Your point is that the losses weren't severe enough to get enough Americans to rise up and demand change. But to say the cost has been 'nothing' is ignorant

you know, except the lives of their kids.

That's because we monetized and reality-tv'd the whole fucking thing. Vets coming home to family? Halftime show Vet coming home with no legs? Let's do a television show around him getting an accessible home Vets coming home with ptsd? Let's 'thank them for their service'.

Thousands dead, several times that wounded, trillions in debt and that's just American losses.

For The Economist, several trillion dollars is ‘nothing’.

Whoever wrote this is clearly a serial killer.

Gross

Well this might be the worst take in the history of takes.

So keep fighting!

Retract this.

clearly untrue. from a mag called The Economist. a simple concept like 'opportunity cost' puts the lie to that.

Delete this lie.

we're $6trillion in and counting. The Opportunity Cost is huge. We might have done quite a lot with such resources.

The US keeps fighting for land and oil that does not belong to them and you still keep wondering why do they have the most foreign enemies?! Don't start nothing there won't be nothing. Hands off every rival, stay out of other countries affairs and mind your own damn business!!!

The US invaded the countries. US Killed people and destroyed their homes He looted underground resources and historical monuments. But easy targets are now over

'The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost most Israelis nothing. That is why they continue. ' There, fixed it.

$1T, they could have infested in infrastructure or universal healthcare rather than war.

You must get rid of Trump!

Rip im Afghan

Haha, Round 2? Must not have enjoyed the responses to the original tweet?

Uh, what about the families here who have family members there? What about the 2 trillion bucks we spent? Pathetic title.

wakeup

Quite true. The wars were mostly off budget and paid for on the national credit card. If Bush & Congress had called for a war tax or homeland security bonds, Iraq & Afghanistan would have ended long ago.

The American people are aware of the game! civilian people know that the soldiers went to the region to exploit the oil of other countries!The understanding of the US democracy turned into petrol democracy in front of the whole world.Kill people,take petrol,sell gun !superpowerUS

The only people distant from the military and the USA seem to be Democrat voters, mainly because a large chunk of them aren't American

They cost the lives of innocent Iraqis though that's the more important fact

I'm pretty sure that's what everybody wants... ritualistically 'support the troops'... burn money... but, don't let it interfere with our daily lives too intrusively.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 6. in US

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Iraq protest death toll rises to 300 with nearly 15,000 injuredAt least 301 people have been killed and nearly 15,000 have been injured in Iraq since the start of anti-government protests in October, the Independent High Commission for Human Rights of Iraq (IHCHR) said in a statement Saturday. Let me guess, you put this propaganda out to condition Americans into thinking we should send troops. We all know who your military industrial complex sponsors are. Stick to fake news, so you will wither away faster.
Source: CNN - 🏆 4. / 95 Read more »

The Latest: Iraq officials: 4 protesters killed, 100 woundedBAGHDAD (AP) — The Latest on protests in Iraq (all times local): 6:30 p.m. Iraqi medical and security officials say four anti-government protesters were killed and 108 wounded in the... godresttheirsouls solidarity IN THE END ISLAMIC STATE WILL CRUSH THEM ALL
Source: AP - 🏆 728. / 51 Read more »

Iraq oil production and exports stable, extraction healthy - ministerIraq's oil production and export rates remain stable, Oil Minister Thamer G... LoّrdMayorsShow Cًaturday CَHECRY BٍerlinWall30 sٌatchat SْtarshipProtectMonstaX7 SّpringDay1000Days TُhankYouGameFreak SْaturdayThoughts Caُturday sٍatchat SّaturdayThoughts LoْrdMayorsShow BَerlinWall30 SًtarshipProtectMonstaX7 SِpringDay1000Days ThْankYouGameFreak CّHECRY Our mission at is to build the social news network that ends fake news. Follow us Overlooked_Inc
Source: Reuters - 🏆 2. / 97 Read more »

Opinion | Regular people in Iraq are standing up to Iran, and it's terrifying TehranThe U.S. has been trying to weaken Iran’s influence over Baghdad ever since America invaded the country. Now an unlikely source is helping: The Iraqi people. THINK HongKongProtests To free world, HKGov & police force hv been murdering, raping us everyday. Most of us would end up as floating corpse, being suicided, even being sent back to China for organ harvest. How many more must die before you act? THINK George W Bush was right. THINK Iraqis kicking US troops - and US intelligence operatives -- out of their country would be a really hopeful sign for the Mideast.
Source: NBCNews - 🏆 10. / 86 Read more »

Deadly clashes reignite in Iraq despite cleric's call for calm- Fresh clashes between Iraqi security forces and anti-government protesters bro... cleric sounds so catholic.... Cool mask bro. Help me to get my hardearned money from PakistanAirforce housing scheme Karachi (Fazaia Housing scheme karachi). The project started in 2015 but now halted for unknown reasons. Applied for 100% refund but not able to get money. Raise voice for the sake of my children.
Source: Reuters - 🏆 2. / 97 Read more »