The Illegal Iraq War
Is Still Laughing
At Our Face!
U.S. Has Spent $32 Million
Per Hour on War-on-Terror
Since 2001
(M. Javed Naseem)
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Summary
o:- Direct
war death toll in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan
since 2001: 370,000
(August 2016).
o:- Over
370,000 people have died due to direct war
violence, and at least
800,000 more indirectly.
o:- 200,000
civilians have been killed as a result of the
fighting at the hands
of all parties to the conflict.
o:- 10.1 million
— the number of war refugees
and displaced persons.
o:- The
US federal price tag for the post-9/11 wars is
about $5.6 trillion
dollars.
o:- The
US military is conducting counter-terror
activities in 76
countries.
o:- The
wars have been accompanied by violations of
human rights and
civil liberties, in the US
and abroad.
(Courtesy: http://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/)
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The evil Zionist empire has
tightened its grip on world affairs with the help of bombs and guns. It is
manipulating other countries’ (especially oil-rich Middle East) resources and
plundering their wealth, destroying, at the same time, centuries old
civilization, historic monuments and modern infrastructure, not to mention
millions of people killed in the process. The ruthless Triangle of Evil (US, UK & Israel) has been killing innocent
civilians, including children and women, like psychopaths with no remorse. They
want control – total control – of the entire world and its resources.
The Evil Empire also owns and
controls the mainstream media, therefore, common people don’t get the authentic
information or facts about any situation these war-mongers are involved in. The
corrupt media is serving the Evil Empire as a paid maid. So, it is difficult to
get the truth out. But it is still possible and there are some brave people who
are doing this dangerous and risky work just to wake people up. This is a great
noble mission under the given circumstances when even criticizing the aggressor
or the killer has become a crime.
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You are being
fooled by lies & deception!
Speak out and
demand the truth!
Fight for your
rights, liberty & justice!
Don’t surrender
your rights and lawful
privileges in the
name of ‘fake’ security!
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The wheel of Iraq war was set in motion in 2003 by George
Bush, in the name of War on Terror on a false and fabricated pretext that Iraq’s President
Saddam Hussain possessed the WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). The co-culprit,
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, supplied the desired ‘proof’ and the war
machine of the Zionist West was given the green light to attack Iraq, by the
Zionist mafia. The U.N. declared it an illegal war and did not endorse it, but
later on embraced it.
Till today, millions of
people have been killed, one way or the other, by this illegal campaign but
still there’s no end in sight – 15 years and counting! The Triangle of Evil has
been exporting weapons and ammunition, plus other equipment, making trillions
of dollars in profits. Anything else does not matter. War is the most
profitable business for them and they export it under the label of ‘freedom and
democracy’. They exported this freedom and democracy to Vietnam, Nicaragua,
Philippines, Afghanistan, Iraq,
Libya, Sudan, Syria,
Yemen,
etc., etc. – the list goes on and on! One can easily see that there is a pattern
there and the same people (or countries) are the beneficiaries!
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The U.S.
taxpayers pay the tab;
Children of the
patriots are sacrificed;
Millions of
civilians are butchered;
Death &
Destruction is promoted;
But a few
psychopaths get richer,
And gain
control of the world!
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The modern history tells us that once America gets in, it won’t get out
till that country is destroyed or its government is subdued. ‘Regime change’ is
the new fashionable term being used for invasions and illegal attacks. The
morons in power have declared openly: ‘If you are not with us, you are against
us’. What a slogan! What a mentality! What a logic! So, the weaker, the coward
and the opportunists are all jumping on the bandwagon and offering cooperation
to protect their own asses and their illegitimate regimes. War has become the
most profitable business for the Defense Industrial Complex of the Zionist
West’s New World Order.
With more than 900 bases all over the world, the Evil Empire
is not exporting freedom and democracy. It’s consolidating its hegemony of the
world. During
the Sept. 12, 2011, Republican presidential debate in Tampa,
Rep. Ron Paul, (R-Texas) – a staunch advocate of limited government and a more
modest military footprint – offered a surprising statistic about the reach of
the U.S. armed forces. He said:
"We're under great threat, because we occupy so many
countries," Paul said. "We're in 130 countries. We have 900 bases
around the world. We're going broke. The purpose of al-Qaida was to attack us,
invite us over there, where they can target us. And they have been doing it.
They have more attacks against us and the American interests per month than
occurred in all the years before 9/11, but we're there occupying their land.
And if we think that we can do that and not have retaliation, we're kidding
ourselves. We have to be honest with ourselves. What would we do if another
country, say, China,
did to us what we do to all those countries over there?"
Stephanie Savell is co-director of the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. An anthropologist,
she has conducted research on security and civic engagement in the U.S. and in Brazil. She co-authored The Civic Imagination:
Making a Difference in American Political Life.
The Costs of War Project is a team of 35 scholars, legal
experts, human rights practitioners, and physicians, which began its work in
2011. They use research and a public website to facilitate debate about
the costs of the post-9/11 wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan, and the
related violence in Pakistan
and Syria.
Their aim is to foster democratic discussion of these wars by providing the
fullest possible account of their human, economic, and political costs, and to
foster better informed public policies.
15 Years After
Invasion,
What Are the Costs?
By: Stephanie Savell,
(via OtherWords.org)
U.S. Has Spent $32 Million Per Hour on War Since 2001
This March marked the 15th anniversary of the U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq.
In 2003, President George W. Bush and his advisers based
their case for war on the idea that Saddam Hussein, then dictator of Iraq,
possessed weapons of mass destruction — weapons that have never been found.
Nevertheless, all these years later, the global “War on
Terror” continues — in Iraq
and in many other countries.
It’s a good time to reflect on what this war — the longest
in U.S.
history — has cost Americans and others around the world.
First, the economic costs: According to estimates by
the Costs
of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for
International and Public Affairs, the war on terror has cost Americans a
staggering $5.6 trillion since 2001, when the U.S.
invaded Afghanistan.
$5.6 trillion! This figure includes not just
the Pentagon’s war fund, but also future obligations such as social services
for an ever-growing number of post-9/11 veterans.
It’s hard for most of us to even begin to grasp such an
enormous number.
It means Americans spend $32 million per hour, according to
a counter by the National
Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.
Put another way: Since 2001, every American taxpayer has
spent almost $24,000 on these wars — equal to the average
down payment on a house, a new Honda Accord, or a year at a public university.
As stupefying as those numbers are, the budgetary costs pale
in comparison with the human toll.
As of 2015, when the Costs of War project made its
latest tallies, up to 165,000 Iraqi civilians had died as
a direct consequence of U.S. war, plus around 8,000 U.S. soldiers and military
contractors in Iraq.
Those numbers have only continued to rise. Up to 6,000
civilians were killed by U.S.-led strikes in Iraq
and Syria
in 2017 –– more civilians than in any previous year, according to the watchdog
group AirWars.
In addition to those direct deaths, at least four times as many people in Iraq have died
from the side effects of war, such as malnutrition, environmental degradation,
and deteriorated infrastructure. Since the 2003 invasion, for instance,
Iraqi health care has plummeted — with hospitals and clinics bombed, supplies of medicine and electricity
jeopardized, and thousands of physicians and healthcare workers fleeing the
country.
Meanwhile, the war continues to spread, no longer limited to
Afghanistan, Iraq, or Syria, as many Americans think.
Indeed, the U.S.
military is escalating a shadowy network of anti-terror operations all across
the world — in at least 76 nations, or 40 percent of countries on the
planet.
Last October, news about four U.S. Army Green Berets being
killed by an Islamic State affiliate in the West African nation of Niger gave
Americans a glimpse of just how broad this network is.
And along with it comes all the devastating consequences of militarism for the
people of these countries.
We must ask: Are these astounding costs worth it? Is the U.S.
accomplishing anything close to its goal of diminishing the global terrorist
threat?
The answer is, resoundingly, no. U.S. activity in Iraq
and the Middle East has only spurred
greater political upheaval and unrest. The U.S.-led
coalition is seen not as a liberating force, but as an aggressor. This has fomented insurgent
recruitment, and there are now more terrorist groups in the Middle East than ever before.
Until a broad swath of the American public gets engaged to
call for an end to the War on Terror, these mushrooming costs — economic,
human, social, and political — will just continue to grow.
(Courtesy: www.OtherWords.org,
Cartoon by Khalil Bendib)
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