So, Who Is Getting The Money?
by James Glaser
January 14, 2010

It has been reported that President Obama's military surge in Afghanistan is costing us $57,077.60 a minute. TomDispatch.com reports it this way:

Women and men from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, will be among the first to head out. It takes an estimated $1 million to send each of them surging into Afghanistan for one year. So a 30,000-person surge will be at least $30 billion, which brings us to that $57,077.60. That's how much it will cost you, the taxpayer, for one minute of that surge.

By the way, add up the yearly salary of a Marine from Camp Lejeune with four years of service, throw in his or her housing allowance, additional pay for dependents, and bonus pay for hazardous duty, imminent danger, and family separation, and you'll still be many thousands of dollars short of that single minute's sum.

So, even if it would cost us the whole $57 thousand plus for each troop sent to combat, it would only take 21 days to pay for every Soldier or Marine President Obama has planned to send over there for his surge.

That leaves 344 days filled with $57 thousand dollar minutes that you and I are paying for. Where is all that money going, and how much of that is profit for the defense industry?

And you thought war equals patriotism?

If corporations were really patriotic, they would supply our military with as little profit as needed to stay in business. Wars would no longer be a money maker, and would soon fade from the American experience.

As long as there are huge profits to be made killing people, America will continue killing.

Free JavaScripts provided
by The JavaScript Source