Zero Hedge: $6.4 Trillion And Counting – How The Military-Industrial Complex Hijacked The War On Terror

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Ike Was Right!

Authored by Eric Margolis,

โ€œIn the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.

General Dwight D Eisenhower
Farewell address 1961

Congress just passed a near trillion dollar military budget at a time when the United States faces no evident state threats at home or abroad. Ike was right.

Illustrating Ikeโ€™s prescient warning, Brown Universityโ€™s respected Watson Institute just released a major study which found that the so-called โ€˜wars on terrorโ€™ in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan have cost US taxpayers $6.4 trillion since they began in 2001.

The extensive study found that over 800,000 people have died as a result of these military operations, a third of them civilians. An additional 21 million civilians have been displaced by US military operations. According to the Pentagon, these US wars have so far cost each American taxpayer $7,623 โ€“ and thatโ€™s a very conservative estimate.

Most of this money has been quietly added to the US national debt of over $23 trillion. Wars on credit hide the true cost and pain from the public.

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