WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #119, MARCH 29, 2023

WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #119, MARCH 29, 2023   COST OF US WARS Tom Dispatch.  Intro. to Astore’s  “America Hangs from a Cross of Iron.” 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF US INVASION OF IRAQ JUAN COLE.   “The American War from Hell, 20 Years Later: How Washington Lost Its Moral Compass in Iraq.” US INVASION OF IRAQ AND US MAINSTREAM MEDIA  Norman Solomon.  “The urbanity of evil: 20 years after the Iraq invasion.” TEXTS Tom Dispatch.   “William Astore, [$Costs of War$] ‘America Hangs from a Cross of Iron.’”  March 21, 2023. Just in case you were wondering where your tax dollars went in this century, consider the American war, now 20 years old, in Iraq (and after 2014 in Syria as well). Neta Crawford of the invaluable Costs of War Project has just released her latest summary of what that invasion and the disaster that followed cost the American taxpayer. Her estimate: $1.79 trillion, if you don't count the future costs of caring for that war's damaged U.S. veterans. If you do, we're talking about $2.89 trillion by 2050. And in case you think that's all so been-there-done-that, don't forget, while this country no longer has 170,000 troops in Iraq as it did in 2007, there are still 2,500 of them there and another 900 or so in Syria. Add in the no less disastrous war in Afghanistan, another $2.3 trillion or so, and you've already made it over the $5-trillion mark before you even include the costs of the rest of the disastrous global war on terror (still ongoing) in places ranging from Somalia to West Africa. Think of that as the context for the latest Pentagon budget, already larger than those of the next nine countries combined, because here's what couldn't be stranger: the less successful the U.S. military has been globally, the more we, the taxpayers, have to ante up. Yep, the 2023 Pentagon budget, passed late last year, was $858 billion and, if you're talking about the full "national security" budget, including all our intelligence agencies, the Department of Homeland Security, and the like, that figure is closer to $1.5 trillion annually. In fact, these days, hiking the Pentagon budget may be just about the only thing congressional Republicans and Democrats can actually agree on, which means... yes, as retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, historian, blogger, and TomDispatch regular William Astore makes strikingly clear today, we're still heading for the stratosphere (and I'm not thinking about the U.S. Air Force or even that American drone Russian planes forced down over the Black Sea recently). In fact, when it comes to that budget, the proverbial sky may not be the limit, but outer space itself. Tom

A Highway to Peace or a Highway to Hell?  The Vast Power of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex By William J. Astore. Click here to read more of this dispatch.

20TH ANNIVERSARY OF US INVASION OF IRAQ  JUAN COLE.   “The American War from Hell, 20 Years Later: How Washington Lost Its Moral Compass in Iraq.”  [or: Make America Great Again]. Who remembers anymore that, in 2003, we were Vladimir Putin? Today, our cable and social-media news feeds are blanketed with denunciations of the president of the Russian Federation for his lawless and brutal invasion of Ukraine. When Secretary of State Antony Blinken met briefly with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in New Delhi on March 2nd, he told him in no uncertain terms, “End this war of aggression.” Putin himself, however, has a longer memory. In the speech that launched his “special operation,” he pointedly denounced the U.S. for “the invasion of Iraq without any legal grounds.” Then he added, “We witnessed lies made at the highest state level and voiced from the high U.N. rostrum. As a result, we see a tremendous loss in human life, damage, destruction, and a colossal upsurge of terrorism.” Yes, it’s true, on the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, that war is long forgotten here. No one in the Biden administration today cares that it ruined what credibility America had as a pillar of international order in the global south and gave Putin cover for his own atrocity. So, sit back for a moment and let me take you on a little trip into a long-lost all-American world.   Read the  full essay:   https://tomdispatch.com/the-american-war-from-hell-20-years-later/?utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=bed8da6319-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_07_13_02_04_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1e41682ade-bed8da6319-308836209#more MICMMC Military -Industrial – Congressional-Mainstream Media Complex (PCCMMC Pentagon-Corporate- etc. )  Norman Solomon.  “The urbanity of evil: 20 years after the Iraq invasion, the lies ...” Salon.com   https://www.salon.com › 2023/03/19 › iraq-anniversary   Mar 19, 2023 — Vast quantities of lies from top U.S. government officials led up to the Iraq invasion. Now, marking its 20th anniversary, the same media  The Urbanity of Evil: 20 Years After the US Invasion of Iraq Common Dreams   https://www.commondreams.org › ... › iraq invasion   Mar 14, 2023 — Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, and author of  War Made Easy. War Made Easy: Norman Solomon on How Mainstream ... Znetwork   https://znetwork.org › Video   5 days ago — As we continue to mark the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we look now at how the mainstream U.S. media helped to pave the way ...     END WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #119, MARCH 29, 2023