The official number for the cost of the Iraq war is $1.1 trillion ($1,100,000,000,000 - to better imagine that: you could build 733 Burj Khalifas with that amount of money!), Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank, says it actually even had cost $3 trillion in a moderate scenario (1/6 of the entire GDP of the US in 2016).

Take a look at the wikipedia article, it's insane! And these are numbers that are publicly accessible, who knows what the actual figures (= profits) are.

To really wrap your head around how much one trillion is, you only have to realize that 1 Trillion seconds is 32,000 years.

::mind blown::

Whats worse is all the lives lost on many fronts... and for what? All those dead, mentally affected, physically scarred, and the civvies as well... all to line someone elses pockets.

Smedley Butler, a Marine Officer, wrote about this back in 1935 and its still stands true today (War is a Racket). Its no surprise the military industrial complex perfected psy ops on troops thanks to the CIA. There is no way you would get someone to fight and die just to get someone else rich otherwise.

And US citizens are paying that with tax dollars at interest. I didn't vote to pay for that shit. Did anyone else?

EDIT: Here's your goal.

http://www.usdebtclock.org

Pay for it in taxes or pay for it in oil and gas cost 10x higher than now.

Regardless you were gonna pay

We were warned this would happen: Eisenhower's Famous Military Industrail Complex Speech - His Farewell Address

If you take the $1.1 trillion figure, that would make it $3,985 dollars per second of the war, based on the official start and end dates.

3 trillion makes it $10,868

They deserve a 6x6 jail cell.

They deserve a brick wall and no blindfold.

I have cask of some nice Amontillado in the cellar they might be interested in.

It's never out of my head. All those bastards made tons of money, and it still keeps disappearing. Google "Afghani Guest Houses" as an example of more corporate fraud. There is blood on every dollar. They all deserve to hang.

Best post here in many months.

Agreed

The place has gone to hell. It's now 4chan and the Donald's bullshit fiesta.

Nah.

This is a subreddit for conspiracy theories.

The reason we're not holding anyone accountable for anything is because there's no actual conspiracy theory unless you want to dive into 9/11.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket

Nah.

This is a subreddit for conspiracy theories.

The reason we're not holding anyone accountable for anything is because there's no actual conspiracy theory unless you want to dive into 9/11.

The reason we're not holding anyone accountable for anything is because there's no actual conspiracy theory unless you want to dive into the controlled demolitions that took place on 9/11.

agreed

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket

You seriously think that they thought Iraq was a threat to us?

Bush is part of the Khazarian mafias band of 300.

Which Bush?

I'm pretty sure at least senior.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Herbert_Walker

I was gonna say - HW's kids seem far too stupid to be inducted into the Bilderberg crew.

sorry we only talk about pizza anymore

You can care about both.

Right? Just as Bush and Rumsfeld/Cheney/Rice and Powell deserve to be investigated and their families and cohorts shamefully kicked out of politics forever, so does Obama/Clinton/Poedsta/etc. I can't believe the patriotic citizens of this country can allow our politicians to embarrass and sully our institutions and reputations this much.

Partisan bullshit is powerful, unfortunately.

4chan trolling/defamation doesn't hold a candle to what the Neocons did.

both related. how did they really get media to stay silent on all the lies and illegal wars not to mention 9/11 that preceded it. with pedo blackmail.

Are you saying every member of the media is a pedophile and the government knew about it? Yikes. And I thought the Clinton Foundation theory was a stretch...

yeah otherwise you won't get a high profile job

some do refuse to but then they get hastings'ed

So the biggest pedos get the best jobs? Like, the more kids you abuse, the higher your salary? This must also apply to local news and cops? But why did much of the media then turn on the Bush administration after they took Baghdad and captured Saddam?

when did that happen? turning on w?

The justification for invading was that Saddam was a mad man with WMDs so after we made our way to Baghdad and captured Saddam in May 2003 the media started asking "where are the WMDs?" and "now that Saddam is gone, why are we still here?" CNN and others covered the war closely for years which increased the public's war-wariness. Fahrenheit 9/11 was a huge success and Bush left office one of the least popular presidents ever. That certainly wouldn't have happened if all the media towed the line the way FOX did throughout.

turning on him would actually be nice, the media never did come out and say he lied even tho that was obvious. should be in jail for treason as we speak.

probably but it's impossible to know what's going on in someone's head. Media is only responsible for reporting on the facts.

downing st memo. ignored by us media

did show he lied

just like you can care about poverty and the rise of the mole people.

Bush Sr. started the Pizza craze tho

It's almost like this is a subreddit made for conspiracy theories and not 'holding people accountable' (however you're supposed to do that).

Pizza and this are one in the same. It's all connected.

Btw fuck tinfoil hats I'm raw doggin it.

Nope. Emails and pizzas, baby! Smell that freedom and liberty!!!

It's sad how everyone has so easily been distracted with nonsense. This is why mass revolts don't happen in this country. Shiny objects work too well on us.

object doesn't even need to be shiny, just start an argument about why its so and so's fault it is no longer shiny

It's all or nothing.

Why not all of the above?

That's exactly how a shadowy organization would discredit a conspiracy that was actually real 😀

Hail, Eris! Hail, Discordia!

A whole country? What about the other countries?

True but we stepped in first and then brought the whole of Europe with us.

Canadians as well.

And then some Americans bombed the shit outta them by accident too.

Last I checked only the military goes to war.

I'm with you but history gives us a very lengthy list of examples where the winners generally pay no price. It's terrible and sad on a really epic level but there it is.

Personally I'd settle for a trial even if the outcome was bullshit. I think what we're going to get is a whole lot of nothing and people pretending like there are "two sides" to this.

Firing Squad sounds appropriate to me.

Yeesh guys

Also for murder. The slaughter continues the world over for the whims of two deranged murderers who never had to spill their own blood but the blood of their own people and others.

Ain't that the freaking truth.

As an addition to this. Let us never forget what David Cameron and Sarkozy did to libya...

Hang blair from big ben

We need to hold Bush and Blair accountable - yes - but who we REALLY need to be holding accountable and responsible for the wars are the multinational corporations that Bush and Blair are controlled by.

who we REALLY need to be holding accountable and responsible for the wars are THE PEOPLE WHO CONTROL THE CORPORATIONS; i.e.. the CEOs.

Won't disagree, but there are a lot of complicit spokes in the wheel that need to be disciplined as well - not just the hub.

Didnt they pass a law before they left office making them untouchable. I cant find it on mobile. But i remeber a under th3 breath thing in 2004 that the goverment passed a law making bush cheney and rumsfeld pretty much u naccountable for all that happened.

Here is a different perspective and one laid out to me by an Indian national. I said our country intervenes and starts wars for oil and profit and thus we are bad (simplification)

He said the profits and oil will be there regardless and someone is guaranteed to try and control them. The people who do control the oil thus allow their country to survive / thitve for years to come.

He explained that gas in India is 5 - 7x what we pay yet they make 1/10 of what me make thus their country is always in a perpetual state of dispair.

Oil = growth, security, industrialized nations. No oil = struggle, pain, revolt.

My only issue with this is I rather our government just be honest and say we need the oil. Without the oil your children and their children will become third world citizens. With that info if laid out correctly I believe most people can get behind. Yes it sucks that in order for us tho have others must have not but that's the world.

Just stop lying and telling us it's for democracy.

Yep, because all "known" modes of travel and power generation require copious amounts of oil.

http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?v=88&t=20

Country Comparison : Oil production

1 Saudi Arabia 11,730,000

2 United States 11,110,000

3 Russia 10,440,000

So we are buddy with Saudi for oil, and that's why Hillary wanted to fight Russia eh ?

5 Canada 3,856,000

8 Iraq 2,979,000

9 Mexico 2,936,000

Also a matter of time before our neighbors become part of USA too...?

20 India 990,200

less than 1/10 native oil production compared to USA, I can see why your Indian friend felt more desperate for it.

is this because there's no oil in the ground in india? even if there is they'd just get invaded and have it taken away and their rulers made into our puppets.

Let's do it.

Bush and Blair may be accountable for war for profit, but they're not the first...

Can... can we make such an example of them they are the last?

I wish... Unfortunately, the powers that be see war as a money making machine...

While we're at it why don't you add every other president since the United States inception.

We have been at war for 222 -239 years since 1776

Obama's term — a near-certainty given the president’s recent announcement that he will send 250 additional Special Operations forces to Syria — he will leave behind an improbable legacy as the only president in American history to serve two complete terms with the nation at war.

These people want war as long as they do not have to pay for it, and as long as they do not have to serve in combat.

The whole thing was criminal, right down to the justification for going to war, and everyone knows it

Nothing will be done because we keep repeating the cycle. If Bush and Blair are held accountable the whole charade falls apart. The people unseat those in power who keeps beating the same drum.

You could also include in this list every president since Harry Truman, skipping JFK of course. Netflix has a great documentary called "The Untold History Of The United States" it goes in great depth on how America created the strongest and most ruthless industrial military complex the world has ever seen.

War in a nutshell.
Why not avoid the possible nuke timeline? This seems like a backburner issue to me.

If it really matters to you, get billions and go visit Argentina.

[deleted]

What is this?

Can you show me a good post to read up on this? I've always heard this and I'd like to read up on it more since I've always thought the US didn't invade for selfless reasons.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3277402/Smoking-gun-emails-reveal-Blair-s-deal-blood-George-Bush-Iraq-war-forged-YEAR-invasion-started.html

We should arrest them and try them by grand jury!

Jail is for the poor, people like Bush and Blair get punished with lucrative executive/consultant positions at the companies they made billions for by lying the western world into endless wars and occupations in the middle east. They will never see a courtroom over it, let alone a jail cell. We're more likely to see the sun go out than to see those guys end up in jail. When you're that rich and well connected to the super-class rich folks, the entire world rearranges itself around you to keep you fat and happy and out of trouble, regardless of who you rape or kill, or which countries you invade and have millions of people killed in. Just like that Dupont son/heir who raped his baby daughter and some other toddler, and then got released with no jail time, with the judge making the remark that the defendant "probably wouldn't fair well in prison".

not to mention they passed laws before leaving office that granted themselves and their employees retroactive legal immunity from prosecution for any of the lawbreaking they did while in power, they even passed the "American Service Member Protection Act" which is known colloquially as "The Hague invasion act", because it authorizes the use of any force or coercion necessary to prevent the arrest, detainment, or prosecution of Americans by any international court - so they've got laws on the books to invade the Hague, just in case they ever try to hold us accountable or in case some uppity foreign lawman or Interpol agent decides to arrest a former official in one of the administrations responsible for the wars.

Obama didn't push for the DOJ to seek justice against Bush's administration for their war crimes. That was our best shot, but I guess it's to be expected when Obama continued Bush's illegal wars and started even more. Can we expect Trump's administration to seek justice here?

I don't. I don't even expect his DOJ to go after Obama or the Clintons for their crimes either. And it doesn't matter how much a person deserves a prison cell if law enforcement refuses to enforce laws.

Its

See...i have a different take on this. I have no problem with the notion that we interfered in a foreign war in order to secure natural resources that are essential to the daily functions of our citizens. I just wish they would have been honest about it and seized the damn oil wells.

That's one fucked up mentality.

Why? Its natural that government, which represent the interests of their citizens, need to protect those interests, and that sometimes involves war. The entire history of the world is people killing each other to control land and resources. Thats human nature.

And when that countries citizens fight the invading force, you're government calls them terrorists? If that's the case, every attack on Western land is justified based on the destruction that was caused by your "interests".

No. I never said I agreed with the propaganda. I just disagree with the "no blood for oil" trope. We are trying to enforce a world-wide petro-dollar hegemony. Of course there is going to be "blood for oil." But be honest about it.

I would much prefer we return to being a self-contained republic with no imperial ambitions, but that ship has long sailed. I hate the government for a lot of lies, deceptions, and abuses of power. However, using your superior military forces to secure natural resources is not, in and of itself, objectionable to me.

OP, I know I'm being pedantic, but please learn how to form a sentence with proper vocab if you want to get people to take action.

Sorry guy. I am working and on the mobile.

No worries. It's the "it's" that got to me.

who we REALLY need to be holding accountable and responsible for the wars are THE PEOPLE WHO CONTROL THE CORPORATIONS; i.e.. the CEOs.