In 2003, the United States launched a full-scale invasion on Iraq, only two years after the attack on 9/11. This lead to war almost immediately between Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan against both the United States and the United Kingdom. For eight years, the American government tried to subdue Iraq, ruled by Saddam Hussein at the time, because of an assumption that the Iraqi government was in possession of nuclear weapons and to stop Saddam Hussein’s aggression against his own people, thus attempting to spread ‘democracy’. The entire “project” proved to be unnecessary in terms of American involvement and many have said that the United States lied to its people and only went to Iraq for oil and for revenge (Sreenberg). The United States government
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According to Bacevich, the United States spent about 4.4 trillion dollars on the war in Iraq, but it is estimated that interest payments could rise to around 17 trillion by the year 2053. The interest payments not only include paying back who we’ve borrowed from, but also paying the soldiers who fought for their lives in the Iraqi War. With the money spent on the war, it equals to roughly around 720 million dollars a day, which could “buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity, according to the American Friends Service Committee” (Lydersen). Going along with that being said, Thompson concludes that if the United States had never gone to war, we could have spent the money to “boost the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, create a sizable colony on Mars, end Obamacare, and have a 50% cut in corporate income tax rate”. Not only did the United States use that money and then end up wasting it, but they also used the money to violate international …show more content…
For the Americans, a total count of 4,000 or so soldiers were killed and another hundred thousand were estimated to be injured (Thompson). Meanwhile, the death toll of the Iraqi people between March 2003 and August 2007 is guessed to be about 1,033,000 and the total number being roughly 1,455,590 (Naiman). While “casualties” is considered to be physical damage, the mental damage left on these soldiers is horrifying. One soldier, Michael Goss, recounts his story in the Iraqi War and how he is coping. Michael Goss suffers from anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, and nightmares. “They say, ‘You're casualty collecting tonight.’ I'm not prepared for that. I wasn't taught how to do that. But you're there. So you pick them up, and you put them in a body bag, pieces by pieces, and you go back to your unit, and you stand inside your room. And they're like, ‘you’re going on a patrol, come on.’ You're like, ‘Hang on a minute. Let me think about what I just did here.’” Even then after he was forced to collect dead bodies of his own brethren, his triggering moment is when he blindly shoots at a family crossing a checkpoint and realizes he killed an 8 year-old girl. Goss further explains that this moment triggered his depression and PTSD because, “during that mess, they were just trying to get through to get away from it all. And we ended up shooting them.” Most of these
According to Bacevich, the United States spent about 4.4 trillion dollars on the war in Iraq, but it is estimated that interest payments could rise to around 17 trillion by the year 2053. The interest payments not only include paying back who we’ve borrowed from, but also paying the soldiers who fought for their lives in the Iraqi War. With the money spent on the war, it equals to roughly around 720 million dollars a day, which could “buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity, according to the American Friends Service Committee” (Lydersen). Going along with that being said, Thompson concludes that if the United States had never gone to war, we could have spent the money to “boost the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, create a sizable colony on Mars, end Obamacare, and have a 50% cut in corporate income tax rate”. Not only did the United States use that money and then end up wasting it, but they also used the money to violate international …show more content…
For the Americans, a total count of 4,000 or so soldiers were killed and another hundred thousand were estimated to be injured (Thompson). Meanwhile, the death toll of the Iraqi people between March 2003 and August 2007 is guessed to be about 1,033,000 and the total number being roughly 1,455,590 (Naiman). While “casualties” is considered to be physical damage, the mental damage left on these soldiers is horrifying. One soldier, Michael Goss, recounts his story in the Iraqi War and how he is coping. Michael Goss suffers from anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, and nightmares. “They say, ‘You're casualty collecting tonight.’ I'm not prepared for that. I wasn't taught how to do that. But you're there. So you pick them up, and you put them in a body bag, pieces by pieces, and you go back to your unit, and you stand inside your room. And they're like, ‘you’re going on a patrol, come on.’ You're like, ‘Hang on a minute. Let me think about what I just did here.’” Even then after he was forced to collect dead bodies of his own brethren, his triggering moment is when he blindly shoots at a family crossing a checkpoint and realizes he killed an 8 year-old girl. Goss further explains that this moment triggered his depression and PTSD because, “during that mess, they were just trying to get through to get away from it all. And we ended up shooting them.” Most of these