S. E. Williams
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!As the nation and the world reacted to Donald J. Trump’s unilateral attack on Iran in the media on Sunday, many were on edge, worried that this “first strike” action laid the groundwork to once again embroil America in an expansive, expensive and potentially enduring conflict in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Trump and his supporters couldn’t lie and brag enough about the “spectacular military success” of this unprovoked attack. He offered this proclamation despite experts cautioning that it will take time to accurately assess whether the mission produced the results he’d hoped for (the complete degradation of Iran’s nuclear capability) or whether it only served to ignite greater animosity toward the U.S. However, if the mission was such a spectacular success, why was Israel still bombing the same underground sites in Iran on Monday?
Once again, Trump’s unpredictable, erratic and aggressive actions continue to negatively impact diplomatic relations around the world.
Many experts had forewarned that even with America’s superior bumper buster technology, the successful destruction of Iran’s nuclear sites with a single bombing mission was improbable.
Late Sunday afternoon, NPR reported that after analyzing commercially available satellite images,experts determined that Iran’s “nuclear enterprise is far from destroyed” despite Trump’s claim of mission accomplished.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed…”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
So, where does America go from here and how will Iran respond now that the die of war has been cast? At this moment, the answers to both these questions are unknown and with Trump at the helm, highly unpredictable.
What is known, however, is that Iran is certain to retaliate against the U. S. in some way, shape or form, increasing the potential for Trump to drag this country into another protracted war in the Middle East.
Beyond the obvious risks for the potential loss of blood and treasure certain to result from war, we also know the devastating impact any war has on vulnerable communities across this country as federal dollars are redirected to the war effort. These are the communities already at risk due to this administration’s “scorched earth” attack on social services and the federal agencies that support them.
It is difficult to draw a direct correlation between the costs of war and its impacts on the nation’s domestic budget as it relates to social services for citizens of this nation. However, the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University in collaboration with the Congressional Budget Office, produced the Costs of War Project which provides some clarity on the cost of U.S. wars since the War in Viet Nam. It is estimated this nation has spent more than $10 trillion dollars on military related actions.
In other words, $10 trillion tax payer dollars have generously poured into the coffers of the nation’s military industrial complex over the previous 50+ years. Could that money have been spent to uplift Americans rather than funding America’s military industrial complex.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,without considering government benefits and tax policies, “poverty has improved only modestly over the past five decades, falling from 27.0% to 25.4% between 1967 and 2017.” However, when you measure the reduction in poverty in combination with government aid, poverty has fallen to a record low. With government aid taxes included, the poverty rate actually fell from 26.0 percent in 1967 to 14.4 percent in 2017.
Even without a war, Trump’s proposed budget is certain to impact whatever progress this country has made in reducing poverty in recent decades. By making the proposed draconian cuts to social programs, he is putting the least among us at risk. When war is factored in, according to Dr. Heidi Garrett-Peltier of the Costs of War Project, $1 billion in military spending creates fewer jobs and less economic growth than a similar investment in education, healthcare, infrastructure or green energy.
Now, think about the $10 trillion we poured into war over the previous 50 years. According to Garrett-Peltier this money could have funded “universal pre-K and childcare for decades; free public college for all; Medicare for all; major public housing investments and all while ending homelessness many times over.”
We’ve seem the poor pay the highest price in every war. During the Viet Nam fiasco anti-poverty, health and education programs suffered. Although the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were financed by debt, in the long run key social programs received less funding as the interest on that debt increased. In 2024, the nation’s $850 billion defense budget consumed more than half of this country’s discretionary spending and as always, exceeded allocations to much needed funding for education, housing and environmental protections.
Trump creates chaos by design typically for his own aggrandizement and/or to pull attention away from some other disaster he typically has in the works wether its budget cuts to programs supporting those in need, aggressively deporting immigrants and separating families, imposing unreasonable tariffs, or putting the nation at risk of war, etc. Many of his actions exceed his authority as president and yet Congress remains impotent.
The questions today is, how much more is this nation willing to sacrifice to appease the ego of a madman who is willing to pimp out the blood and treasure of this nation for his personal gain and that of his family, friends and financial backers?
Only time will tell.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I’m keeping it real.