[SDCPJ] Happy 4th – Feeling Economically Independent?

As you enjoy the fireworks, think about this: All of us U.S. taxpayers are crushed by the cost of the American overseas military empire. The true taxpayer cost of Iraq and Afghanistan alone: $4 trillion (see below).  And this does not include Libya, or the over 400 U.S. military bases spread over the world outside the U.S. 

 

While some get tax breaks, the overwhelming majority of us taxpayers face generations of paying for this military empire.  This, while domestically, we are becoming a third-world nation.  How is this possible?  Those very few getting rich from war are pulling the strings of what should be our federal government. 

 

So happy 4^th – end the U.S. Overseas Military Empire. 

 

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U.S. Wars in Projected to Cost Nearly $4 Trillion With Hundreds of Thousands Dead (http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/30/headlines)

A new report is estimating the true cost of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will end up being approximately $4 trillion — far more than the Bush or Obama administrations have acknowledged. The report also estimates between 224,000 and 258,000 people have died directly from warfare, including 125,000 civilians in Iraq. Brown University professor Catherine Lutz is the co-director of the "Costs of War" report.

Catherine Lutz, Co-Director of report and professor at Brown University: "Three of the key things that we've found is that the numbers of people who died in this war are much higher than the American public realizes. There have been many, many deaths in military and civilian sectors that haven't been adequately counted or recognized, so we've tried to put that all together. Second thing we found is that the financial costs are also much higher than people recognize, because people have been focusing overly much on the Pentagon's special allocation for the wars and they haven't been looking at things like the interest payment on the debt that was incurred in order to raise that money. They haven't been looking at future obligated costs to veterans for their healthcare ... and a number of other parts of the budget that have to be counted to say what this war cost."