What Could We Have Accomplished with This Money?

That growing number above includes both the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. Even if you believe, like I do, that Afghanistan was a necessary military operation (however poorly-supplied and bungled), whereas Iraq was an inexcusable blunder right from the start (to put it mildly), you still have to admit we will end up wasting trillions in a region of the world where our true ambitions could not be any clearer.

And, no, I don't care that you're tired of hearing about it. I'm tired of trillions of American tax dollars continuously going up in smoke for the benefit of a few politically well-connected corporations, and then being lied to again and again about how — magically — nothing ever amounts to subsidy for these companies. No, really, our information-phobic economic system simply masks reality (if you had any anti-"lefty" interest in assailing the source, you will note that it's Forbes for both the previous, contradictory links, and thank you very much in advance for not being so predictable). Our tax dollars vanish, and hardly anyone cares to be, at the very least, honest about it. Talk about tiresome.

Let's just set aside the needless tragedy of all the American and Iraqi lives lost, and those lost by other countries, and how the real cost of this war can never truly be calculated in a meaningful manner. I will leave that grim discussion to more capable hands, because I won't do it justice. What I do wish to address is the fact that trillions of US tax dollars were squandered just so Big Oil could get its hands on Iraq's impressive reserves, when we could have invested it in our own energy independence and space-faring goals, and be well on our way to generating most or all of our electricity needs in a sustainable way (as far away from the reach of religious fundamentalist zealots as you can get, to boot), and maybe even a good chunk of our total national energy demands besides.

Know what else I'm not interested in, my little confused denier troll friends? Hearing how oil is not used much to generate electricity. No shit, geniuses. Why do you think I distinguished between electricity and total power requirements in the paragraph above? And, while we're at it, what exactly do you think these companies have been doing with their obscene oil profits, hmmmmm?

Send in the troops on somebody else's dollar, let them make the blood sacrifice to deal with the rebellion, saunter in to collect the spoils after much of the smoke clears, then use the revenue to take control of electricity generation back home where it's safe and comfy and cozy with no IEDs going off, suffer ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY for all the lives lost, and have conservative financial publications defend you so vigorously and rabidly your true, hidden business model doesn't even get discussed. Nice work, if you've got the right connections to pull it off.