We Wasted 20 Years Fighting the War on Terror Instead of Climate Change

[AZProgressive]

Twenty years into a nebulous ​"War on Terror," the United States is in the grips of a full-fledged climate crisis. Hurricane Ida, whose severity is a direct result of human-made climate change, flooded cities, cut off power to hundreds of thousands, killed at least 60 people, and left elderly people dying in their homes and in squalid evacuation facilities. This followed a summer of heat waves, wildfires and droughts—all forms of extreme weather that the Global South has borne the brunt of, but are now, undeniably, the new ​"normal" in the United States.

The U.S. government has turned the whole globe into a potential battlefield, chasing some ill-defined danger ​"out there," when, in reality, the danger is right here—and is partially of the U.S. government's own creation. Plotting out the connections between this open-ended war and the climate crisis is a grim exercise, but an important one. It's critical to examine how the War on Terror not only took up all of the oxygen when we should have been engaged in all-out effort to curb emissions, but also made the climate crisis far worse, by foreclosing on other potential frameworks under which the United States could relate with the rest of the world. Such bitter lessons are not academic: There is still time to stave off the worst climate scenarios, a goal that, if attained, would likely save hundreds of millions of lives, and prevent entire countries from being swallowed into the sea.

One of the most obvious lessons is financial: We should have been putting every resource toward stopping climate disaster, rather than pouring public goods into the war effort. According to a recent report by the ​​National Priorities Project, which provides research about the federal budget, the United States has spent $21 trillion over the last 20 years on ​"foreign and domestic militarization." Of that amount, $16 trillion went directly to the U.S. military—including $7.2 trillion that went directly to military contracts. This figure also includes $732 billion for federal law enforcement, ​"because counterterrorism and border security are part of their core mission, and because the militarization of police and the proliferation of mass incarceration both owe much to the activities and influences of federal law enforcement."

Of course, big government spending can be a very good thing if it goes toward genuine social goods. The price tag of the War on Terror is especially tragic when one considers what could have been done with this money instead, note the report's authors, Lindsay Koshgarian, Ashik Siddique and Lorah Steichen. A sum of $1.7 trillion could eliminate all student debt, $200 billion could cover 10 years of free preschool for all three and four year olds in the country. And, crucially, $4.5 trillion could cover the full cost of decarbonizing the U.S. electric grid.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/09/08/we-wasted-20-years-fighting-war-terror-instead-climate-change?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1631130432

[intrepidity]

1. And the stupid War on Drugs nt

[MyOwnPeace]

2. Ha! I was just going to say that........

and it would be very upsetting to see how the money has gone 'up in smoke' (get it? ) on THAT one!

[LakeArenal]

3. My first thought too.

[tirebiter]

4. We wasted 10 years,

I say that in hindsight. Killing Bin Laden had merit. Extending the sphere of liberal democracy seemed like a noble idea. Justice for all and all that.

[captain queeg]

5. The money spent on the wars on terror and drugs could have been spent way more beneficially

Think how much could have been done with the trillions they poured down the rat hole.

[Deuxcents]

6. Watch Frontline on PBS

America after 9-11. A documentary well worth watching. My station had it on last night and another du friend posted it.

[nitpicker]

7. I beg to differ

DID You have to tell your office to evacuate?

Then march many miles back home?

Then recontact one's parent to describe the rice trail back home?

I'm still thankful for the ladies of "23rd street" who hauled out water coolers full of bottles so me and mine got home.