The $113 Billion Hole: Ten Things America Gave Up This Year to Pay for the War in Afghanistan

http://www.truth-out.org/113-billion-hole-ten-things-america-gave-year-pay-war-afghanistan/1308503801

President Obama is expected to announcewithin a week if and how many combat troops he plans to withdraw from the war in Afghanistan. Some of those who will be most impacted by the decision are U.S. soldiers and their families and Afghans who have been dealing with the ramifications of the war for nearly a decade.

Yet the war is affecting more than just Western soldiers and their families and Afghan citizens. It has become a costly drain on our nation’s treasury; the money that is being spent on the war represents resources that are being drained away from important domestic priorities in a nation with sky-high unemployment and crumbling infrastructure.

Using data from the National Priorities Project, ThinkProgress calculated ten investments America could’ve afforded if it didn’t spend $113 billion — the allotment made in Fiscal Year 2011 — on the war in Afghanistan. Each one of these policy options represents an equivalent $113 billion cost:


– Provide 57.5 Million Children With Low-Income Health Care For 2011


More at the link --

1500 new high schools (at $75M per school)

over 5% of our infrastructure repaired (per the American Society of Engineers)



this war is simply not worth what we are giving up.

hegemony. :shrug: :patriot: