“Our war on terror begins with Al Qaeda, but it does not end there,” President George W. Bush 20 ستمبر کو اعلان کیا گیا۔th، 2001, following the 9/11 attacks.
Bush’s “War on Terror” did not end with Al Qaeda – it has roared on into an endless conflict spanning the globe, costing hundreds of thousands of lives and trillions of US taxpayers’ dollars.
“Americans should not expect one battle,” Bush continued, “but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen.”
Days later, the Bush administration launched its air war. By the end of 2001, the US had dropped 17,500 bombs on Afghanistan.
The War in Afghanistan is now in its 17th year, making it America’s longest war. The Pentagon reports that the Afghan conflict costs US taxpayers $45 billion per year.
The human and economic cost of the post-9/11 US War on Terror has been investigated extensively by the جنگ کے منصوبے کی لاگت, based out of the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University.
The Project is made up of researchers, legal experts, human rights officials, and physicians whose focus is to reveal the cost of the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the related conflicts in Pakistan and Syria.
Their research findings are staggering.
The Project’s investigations show that کم از کم 370,000 افراد ہلاک ہوئے ہیں۔ in the post 9/11 wars. Project researchers explain that it is likely that many more people have died indirectly due to environmental catastrophes, malnutrition, and broken infrastructure tied to the wars.
In addition, over 10 million Afghan, Iraqi, and Pakistani people have been displaced as war refugees.
پروجیکٹ calculated the US budgetary costs in the post-9/11 wars to be $5.6 trillion. (In the decade after 9/11, US military spending doubled.)
Their research also shed a light on worldwide US military operations, showing that the US conducted counter-terror operations in 76 centuries around the globe from 2015-2017.
The Project developed a map illustrating drone operations, the deployment of troops, locations of military bases, and training programs – all demonstrating the complex global reach of the US War on Terror.
“Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists,” Bush ominously warned in his 2001 speech.
It quickly became clear where Bush’s line in the sand was drawn with the Patriot Act, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, the administration’s military operations.
Nearly two decades have passed since 9/11, and the War on Terror appears more like an Endless War.
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بینجمن ڈینگل میک گل یونیورسٹی سے لاطینی امریکہ کی تاریخ میں پی ایچ ڈی کی ہے اور ایک دہائی سے زیادہ عرصے تک پورے لاطینی امریکہ میں صحافی کے طور پر کام کیا ہے، دی گارڈین، الجزیرہ، دی نیشن اور وائس جیسے آؤٹ لیٹس کے لیے لکھتے ہیں۔ وہ کتابوں کے مصنف ہیں۔ آگ کی قیمت: بولیویا میں وسائل کی جنگیں اور سماجی تحریکیں۔, بارود کے ساتھ رقص: لاطینی امریکہ میں سماجی تحریکیں اور ریاستیں۔، اور آنے والا پانچ سو سال کی بغاوت: مقامی تحریکیں اور بولیویا میں تاریخ کی غیر آباد کاریتمام اے کے پریس کے ساتھ۔ دنگل ایڈیٹس TowardFreedom.org، عالمی واقعات پر ایک ترقی پسند نقطہ نظر، اور VT میں Champlain کالج میں صحافت پڑھاتا ہے۔ ای میل BenDangl (at)gmail.com. ٹویٹر @BenDangl
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£1 trillion: if £1million was deposited into a bank daily, for the balance to reach £1trillion would take 2,740yrs!
1 بلین سیکنڈ 32 سال اور 8 ماہ کے برابر ہے!