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More of the same is a recipe for failure. In the years after the tragic events of 9/11, the United States went to war not once, not twice, but many times, from Afghanistan to Iraq, Libya to Pakistan, and beyond. The price of this military adventurism has been unfathomable. According to Brown University’s Costs of War project, the post-9/11 wars have cost $8 trillion, displaced 38 million people around the world, directly killed more than 900,000 people, and, through the inevitable reverberations of war, caused the suffering and deaths of many times more.
As the events of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan made all too clear, 20 years of military occupation were utterly incapable of meeting their stated aims. War was, in fact, not the answer—unless the question was how to turn a profit for the arms industry.
But while policymakers have increasingly recognized that full-scale invasions are too politically costly, many have deepened their reliance on alternative forms of warfare instead. Arms sales empower human rights abusers from Saudi Arabia to the Philippines. Broad-based sanctions suffocate entire populations while rallying support for the very governments they’re intended to punish. Drone strikes kill civilians with impunity while serving as recruitment propaganda for violent nonstate actors. Though less visible to the public eye, these alternative forms of warfare are equally ineffective and often just as destructive. Rather than assessing the failures of the endless war era and advancing a new approach, we’ve simply pushed warfare into the shadows.
While the status quo does little for the security of everyday people, it does wonders for elites and corporate interests. Nearly half of the $14 trillion spent on the Pentagon since 2001 went directly to private contractors—and about a third of all contracts to just five corporations. These corporations thrive on the idea that the world is littered with existential threats to the U.S. public that can only be solved with more violence. With an army of lobbyists, a war chest of political influence, and a revolving door between top military brass and corporate board seats, this industry maintains its stranglehold on U.S. foreign policy—and on Americans’ safety.
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https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/24/jayapal-lee-resolution-us-foreign-policy-21st-century/
Thanks for the thread BeckyDem
= new reply since forum marked as read
