The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

The Money and Social Cost of Imperialist Wars

Sep 5, 2011

Both parties repeatedly say that public services, Social Security, Medicare, education, all must be cut due to the budget deficit. Not a word is said about the enormous drain on the U.S. budget of the so-called “wars on terror.”

But there is a new report on the human and financial costs of the wars against terror–that is, U.S. imperialism’s wars in the Middle East for oil. The report, issued this summer by researchers from Brown University, shows that the real cost to the U.S. taxpayer approaches four TRILLION dollars, although the Defense Department budget has numerous ways in which it hides the real costs.

Obama’s estimate of a trillion dollars does not include soldiers’ medical care in Iraq and Afghanistan and medical care after they return wounded, their pensions, security costs, building bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as interest on the debt used to pay for the wars.

The imperialist powers spend colossal sums on the wars that maintain their control of the planet’s resources and leave countries in ruin in the wake of their wars. And that includes the ruin of education, public services, infrastructure and social services in this country, drained of funds to pay for these wars. This is what their supposed defense of order, morality and civilization really means.