according to the estimates of Stiglitz and Bilmes in the Washington Post.
When the numbers get this big, I have to remind myself that a trillion is a million times a million. So we're talking about a million piles of a million dollars, times three.
And what have we bought?
Four thosand dead American troops, tens of thousands wounded or maimed, many more psychologically traumatized.
Hundreds of thousdands of dead Iraqis, massive destruction of social infrastructure, societal disintegration and endemic conflict, millions displaced, misery beyond measure.
A priceless propaganda victory for militant jihadists, a respite for al Qaeda to regroup in Afghanistan and Pakistan, America less safe from terrorism than before the war.
Geopolitical destabilization of the Middle East, and intensified tensions with Iran.
Food for the hungry? No.
Hospitals and health care? Nuh-uh.
Schools and teachers? Nope.
What a deal.
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Anti anti-fascists scanning the ether for signs of dissent, disloyalty, and defeatism.
Occasional thoughts about political life in 21st century America
Anti anti-fascists scanning the ether for signs of dissent, disloyalty, and defeatism.
Premature Anti-Fascist
Returning to America from the Spanish Civil War, veterans of the International Brigades who fought against Franco in the republican cause were said to have been branded as Premature Anti-Fascists. That is, they opposed fascism before World War II, before everyone was supposed to oppose fascism, and therefore were likely to be communist subversives, presumptively disloyal because they fought the fascists too soon. Whether the US government actually used the term itself is now contested by anti-communist historians (although it would be difficult to deny the actual persecution of communists and dissidents in 20th century America). I use it for the name of my blog because, in my darker moments, I worry about the proto-fascist tendencies I see at work in America and because, whether the US government or the Brigadists themselves invented the term, it seems to me a bittersweet badge of honor. For more on the Lincolns, see Peter Carroll, The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
What Price Empire?
PAF recommends for News:
PAF's Book List: Some Recommendations
- Walter Hixson, The Myth of American Diplomacy: National Identity and US Foreign Policy
- James Carroll, House of War: The Pentagon and the disastrous rise of American Power
- James William Gibson, Warrior Dreams: Violence and Manhood in post-Vietnam America
- H. Bruce Franklin, MIA: Mythmaking in America
- Jerry Lembke, The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Vietnam
- Susan Faludi, The Terror Dream
- Andrew J. Bacevich, The New American Militarism
- David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism
- Larry Everest, Oil, Power, and Empire
- Stephen Kinzer, Overthrow
- Michael Isikoff and David Corn, Hubris
- Thomas Ricks, Fiasco
- Chalmers Johnson, Nemesis
- Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, America Alone
- Gary Dorrien, Imperial Designs
- Malise Ruthven, A Fury for God
- Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, The Next Attack
- Sara Diamond, Roads to Dominion
- Chip Berlet and Matthew Lyons, Right-Wing Populism in America