Preventing Peace to Wage War
Obama plans more wars. The peace candidate can't get enough of them. Hawkishness defines his agenda. So does belligerently transforming independent regimes into client ones. The business of America is war. Permanent war is policy. Peace is abhorred. Preventing it is prioritized. So is controlling Eurasia's vast oil, gas, and other resources unchallenged. War profiteering depends on conflict. It's the American way. Post-WW II, it's been that way. One war leads to others. Proxy ones are waged.
Sums spent are enormous. Post-9/11 alone, estimates run into the multi-trillions. A June Brown University Watson Institute for International Studies (WIIS) "Cost of War" report said up to $5,444 trillion was spent and projected with all related expenses and obligations included.
In their book titled, "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict," Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes explained costs way beyond official numbers.
Wars incur many costs besides Pentagon budgets. They include medical care for injured combatants and veterans, federal benefits provided veterans, expenses for veterans paid by state and local governments, construction in occupied countries, supplemental budget and hidden add-ons, black budgets, intelligence costs, national debt interest related to war, weapons R & D, and other categories few people consider.
Among them - the macroeconomic consequences of militarism and war. They include lost industrialization, crumbling infrastructure, other neglected homeland needs, and suffering millions at home on their own, uncared for, unwanted, ignored, and forgotten to assure steady funding for America's war machine.