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What is 4 trillion dollars?
It is 4000 BILLION Dollars.
One billion is a thousand multiplied by a million.

So 4 trillion is 4000 multiplied by a million multiplied by a thousand again.
$4 Trillion dollars -that's the actual total cost in dollars of U.S wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and other military expenditures over the past 8 years.

With the World in economic crisis, surely America could have used a great chunk of that money to rebuild America into the industrial hub of the World. But the only industries to really benefit from war is the war industry and those invested in that war industry. America tries to justify the excessive spending by saying 'security' is the number one reason, and that people's lives are better under the war scenario.

What kind of fool would believe that? 4 Trillion Dollars spent on America, rather than on war would have steered America clear of the worst days of the economic crisis. Imagine the lives that could be saved with 4 trillion dollars? In 2005 the G20 World leaders pledged to deliver 50 Billion Dollars of humanitarian aid and funding for the poorest nations of the World. 50 Billion is 80 times less than 4 Trillion...
Poverty and disease ,homelessness and famine could be eradicated with farming incentives to help the poorest people in the World to grow their own food, drill for water and create sanitation services and medical clinics.

But it seems that the policy makers and politicians alike in America and Britain are merely thinking of their own pockets, rather than caring about the larger World. It is doubtful that 4 trillion dollars spent on war has made any country more secure, and it is doubtful that any terrorist threat is that much of a threat to the larger World to justify 4 trillion dollars spending. The American Policing of the World is imposed on countries, and is carried out with the 'assumption' that terrorists could mass an attack on another country. America's shores would be more secure if some of the 4 Trillion Dollars was spent on securing America's airports, train stations and sea ports.

The bottom line is, there is no real terror threat worth 4 Trillion Dollars, and in many eyes America has just hurt more people than have been saved, which has brought more terrorist factions. America's bombing campaigns have killed over a hundred thousands people in the last few years,injured or internally displaced millions- and America has made itself into the dreaded bogeyman. Nobody trusts America's political positioning is for 'humanitarian purposes' or 'security'.
War is no way to fix people's lives. Humanitarian projects have been either poorly managed, exploited or abandoned in Iraq and Afghanistan. Billions of dollars of aid money has been stolen by American and Afghan troops and officials.

Most of the money spent on wars does not go into humanitarian projects, it just goes into the weapons manufacturing contracts, into soldier wages, into the total cost of positioning and maintaining the occupation of the Middle East, and over the past decade America's wars have only helped provide security for exploitation of oil, security for contractors and diplomats and officials.
There has never been a longer period of war that has cost so much in terms of money and most importantly has destroyed far too many human lives, and it is time for politicians to start demanding the end of wars rather than sitting silent.

So who are you- someone who believes in spending 4 trillion dollars on military operations that achieve very little other than the 'Policing of the Middle East', or, somebody who knows that wars are finished, our banks are running dry- and that we have enough trouble trying to stop financial corruption from turning the capitalist system into a greedy money-grab, let alone throwing money to the wolves?

If you would rather see trillions of dollars get flushed down the sewers of Iraq and Afghanistan then think of your own future and the future of your family, because the World is fighting another war- bankrupcy, unemployment and hardship, which will eventually claim lives and dreams of the hard working tax-paying people.
If we don't push for a stop to wars then wars will consume us all, not some imaginary terrorist threat that never materializes. The people of the Middle East do not hate Western countries, but the war industry hates to see society shape itself. The war machine is a tool of control, a tool to shape and construct a status quo of desperation for some of the poorest people in the World. And out of the desperation, after the bombs have been dropped come the construction contractors, pretending to care, pretending to be the 'saviours' of humanity.

Humanity does not start with war. Donald Rumsfeld once said in an interview that the U.S Military and Airforce did everything they could to prevent civilian casualties- that there was 'care and humanity' used to bomb targets in Iraq. Within the first year of the Iraq War there were over twenty thousand Iraqis killed by U.S airstrikes and troops, with triple that injured...Millions of Iraqis had to flee Iraq to avoid the U.S bombs, and have never returned- and what is there to return to?
We have to keep saying to ourselves- 'We're not going to take it anymore-the wars are finished...'
As I write this, I hear at the back of my mind the war planners, who are currently examining maps and intelligence to somehow contruct another war for the American public and other countries to pay for through the nose.

For the people of the World, war is finished. For the war planners and the war machine industry, the wars are just a job, a way of making money, a way of gaining political control, and are blind to their own evil ways. It's $4 Trillion and counting... The war machine cashes in.

How much more can you give to the evil war machine?

by Russell S.Wyllie - 02 December 2011