Brown University’s Watson Institute is out with a new report on the cost of America’s post-9/11 Middle East wars. Assuming current spending trends continue, the tab will reach $6.4 trillion through fiscal year 2020.
That’s $3.4 trillion spent directly on overseas operations, about $1 trillion in Department of Homeland Security spending, almost $1 trillion in interest on the debt resulting from the spending, and an additional $1 trillion to care for the veterans of these wars over the next several decades.
The Damage of Endless Wars in the Middle East
According to the report, 21 million have been displaced, and a quarter-million civilians have been killed in the Middle East and African wars in which America is involved. Of course, much of this unrest isn’t America’s fault, but by pursuing regime change policies and overthrowing dictators — including Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar al-Qaddafi in Libya — Washington’s actions have destabilized countries and provided openings for increased terror and sectarian strife.
Even when Washington and its Sunni-Muslim allies attempted to overthrow dictator Bashar al-Assad in Syria, unrest and human suffering ensued. Washington spent at least $1 billion a year attempting to arm “moderate rebels” in Syria, who were to fight the Assad regime. The program was wildly unsuccessful and ended up arming jihadists. Aside from this program, our policymakers turned a blind eye to Gulf allies such as Saudi Arabia arming jihadists, including al-Qaeda and its affiliates.
The CIA helped countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar get Western weapons into Syria, many of which ended up in the hands of radical jihadists. Incidentally, the root of the Benghazi scandal, including the presence of relatively unguarded Americans in Libya, was possibly the CIA running a “rat-line” of weapons into Syria. The large cache of Saudi- and U.S.-supplied weapons floating around in Syria and Iraq heavily aided even the rise of the Islamic State.
[…]
See Also:
