Mike's Personal Pages - The "War on Terrorism"

The "War on Terrorism"
(Do you feel safer?)
by Mike Dunton
Last updated on January 3, 2008

Is war wrong? Is this "war" wrong? Forget morals, ethics, the destruction of property or the loss of lives. This article focuses purely on some very basic fiscal considerations. It does not investigate larger issues such as why we chose to wage war on Iraq or on the economic, social and political impacts. Unlike politicians and news agencies, I am citing my information sources.

On February 7, 2007, the Congressional Budget Office released a document entitled, "Estimated Funding for Operations in Iraq and the War on Terrorism." It summarized that since September of 2001, $503 billion ($503,000,000,000) have been spent on the "war" efforts. This is projected to reach $746 billion by the end of next year (FY2008).

According to the CIA Factbook, as of July, 2007, there will be 301,139,947 people in the U.S. [Note: According to the US Population clock at the Census Bureau, the population as of this writing (6/7/07) is 302,028,125 and realizing a net gain of one person every 10 seconds.] Of these people, 67.2% are of the "working" ages between 15 to 64 [male (100,995,752) and female (101,365,035)].

According to the same CIA Factbook article, of these working age people, 144,132,800 are gainfully employed and paying taxes. This means that their share of the financial burden the "war" has placed on them is $34,898 per person ($51,758 by October, 2008).

Now realize that there are many factors that make this estimate inaccurate for any one individual. Some of these workers will pay more and some will pay less. For example:

People with lower salaries are paying a much lower amount of taxes.
People working for the any government organization, although taxpayers, are being paid with tax dollars to start with. (Census Bureau estimates the number of government workers (not including military personnel) to be 22,000,000 in 2002 and increase by 2% per year)
People working for the military, although taxpayers, are being paid with tax dollars as well.
Not all of the tax money we pay goes to this "war" effort meaning that our personal fiscal burdens are far greater that this one budgetary consideration.

So with personal freedom waning and hundreds of billions of dollars spent, do you feel safer or more secure? How about happy with our society or the role that our country is playing in the world? Or do you feel that this "war" is a tremendous waste of money that could be spent to improve our society (schools, scientific research, medical care, securing the borders, increasing food production and manufacturing, etc.) and making a positive impact in our world?

History is cyclical. People make this statement and then never do anything about it. With the luxury of hindsight, it is easy to understand how the decisions that societies made directly led to the the fall of once great civilizations. Do you not believe that this pattern is being repeated.

Note: War is typically defined as a series of armed campaigns and battles fought between nations, states or factions as a struggle for a specific goal. In the U.S., it takes an act of Congress to make the official declaration of war and it is generally understood that this declaration be made against a specific nation or league of nations. It only makes sense.

However, since war is thought by some politicians to be an effective rallying cry by which to unify people, they have added to this time old definition by expanding it to include the ability to declare war against things (i.e. drugs - "The War of Drugs") and now by declaring war on a base emotion -- fear ("The War on Terror"). How idiotic is that? How gullible are you?

Cost of the War in Iraq

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Casualties in Iraq

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are purely Mike Dunton's and not necessarily those of his family, friends, or most of the sheeple (sheep people) of the United States. Mike Dunton is not a radical, fairly apolitical, but as a sentient human being who enjoys logic and exercising his brain, frustrated by ignorance, arrogance, greed, slothfulness, apathy, selfishness, religious fanatics and hypocrites [to name a few pet peeves].

Be very careful not to read your own views into this opinion piece. I am not anti-military nor am I anti-war. They are sometimes necessary to maintain our way of life. I am proud to have served my country and I support my brother's and sister's in arms. I simply believe that their mission is to protect our nation [not the fiscal interests of corporations or the social elite] and we owe it to them, in a time of war, to actually give them a target to aim at that is more real than "terror."

If you have comments, additions, error corrections, want to tell me I am full of shit, or thank me for jarring your gray matter into thinking, drop me a note.