The official cost of the US war effort in Iraq is just about to reach 500 billion dollars. All that money has achieved nothing but the hanging of one man and the death of over half a million Iraqis.
That means about ONE MILLION DOLLARS spent for every killed Iraqi. Now let’s theorize that 10% of the dead counted among the “bad guys”. . . That’s fifty thousand people, which means TEN MILLION DOLLARS spent for every dead “enemy fighter”. We could translate it like this:
That strange calculation reminded me a few words by George Orwell: “The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.” Orwell also put it this way:
Now what to think of our leaders when they keep repeating that We need to improve our productivity. . .?
500 billion dollars divided by 500,000 equals one million dollars
That means about ONE MILLION DOLLARS spent for every killed Iraqi. Now let’s theorize that 10% of the dead counted among the “bad guys”. . . That’s fifty thousand people, which means TEN MILLION DOLLARS spent for every dead “enemy fighter”. We could translate it like this:
One million Americans paid $10 per hour would have to work for one hour to kill one super “terrorist”.
That strange calculation reminded me a few words by George Orwell: “The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.” Orwell also put it this way:
“The primary aim of modern warfare is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standards of living.”
Now what to think of our leaders when they keep repeating that We need to improve our productivity. . .?
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[Picture: Blackscale submarines by reading_is_dangerous] The War Is A Racket
The 1984
The Inside Job
The Bring Them Home
and my Admiral ship the Elbow-Grease
The 1984
The Inside Job
The Bring Them Home
and my Admiral ship the Elbow-Grease
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Great way to look at the numbers. And unfortunately right about war and destruction...
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