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<\/a><\/p>\nImagine for a moment that you had just sat down for dinner with your family when you hear drones flying over head. You and your family were about to take your first bite, when out of nowhere, hell fire missiles rain down from unmanned drones in the sky and blow up dozens of your neighbors, your children, spouse, or other family members, maiming and tearing limbs from dozens more. Imagine if this happened inside the United States. Imagine the reaction from politicians and the US war machine looking to right this wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n Would you, as an American citizen sit idly back and accept the excuse given by the country who carried out that attack? Would you accept the wholesale slaughter of your family and fellow citizens by the dozen if the country who led the attack said it was a mistake and we did it to \u201chelp\u201d you? What if it was one of your children killed in the attack? Or your brother, sister, father, mother, or grand parent? Would you simply accept that this slaughter was a mistake and the \u201chelp\u201d you are receiving from this country is worth it?<\/span><\/p>\n Well, that is exactly<\/a><\/strong><\/span> what the United States has been asking the citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq to do on a regular basis \u2014 hundreds of thousands of times since 9\/11 and 72,000 times in just the last three years.<\/span><\/p>\n On New Year\u2019s Eve, as Americans waited for the turn of the decade, the US government quietly released figures<\/strong><\/span><\/a> detailing the number of bombs dropped on Afghanistan and Iraq since 2015. The numbers are staggering.<\/span><\/p>\n Since just 2015, the US war machine has dropped over 133,000 bombs on people living in the desert on the other side of the planet. Of those 133,000 bombs, Trump dropped 72,000 in just the last three years.<\/span><\/p>\n Dropping bombs on brown people in the desert is non-partisan \u2014 Bush dropped tens of thousands of bombs, Obama dropped tens of thousands of bombs and Trump is now dropping tens of thousands of bombs. Tragically, despite arguing over the day\u2019s irrelevant and highly divisive talking points, most politicians in D.C. agree that dropping bombs makes America great \u2014 including the ostensible \u201csmall government Republicans.\u201d Well, Republicans, dropping a bomb on the other side of the planet every 21 minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year is not small government.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The idea that these people claim to be against socialism while literally socializing wars for profit is hypocritical at best and utterly evil at worst. The money spent on war is inconceivably high. As TFTP reported earlier this year, just 3% of what the US spends on war in a year, could end hunger on the entire planet<\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n If you are one of those people like I used to be, that thinks dropping tens of thousands of bombs on brown people on the other side of the planet somehow makes us \u201csafer,\u201d you are unfortunately and sadly mistaken. It does the opposite and it is bankrupting the country \u2014 both morally and financially.<\/span><\/p>\n In spite of countless drone bombs raining down from the skies, hellfire and tomahawk missiles flattening buildings, and mass graves filled with collateral damage\u00a0<\/em>in the form of dismembered children,\u00a0the US has absolutely nothing to show for it except physically and psychologically damaged veterans<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and a massive multi-trillion dollar debt.<\/span><\/p>\n The Congressional Research Service, for example, concluded<\/a>\u00a0in 2015 that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost U.S. taxpayers $1.6 trillion. However, according to a report from TIME magazine last year, that number is a gross underestimate.<\/span><\/p>\n As TFTP previously reported,<\/a> according to an analysis<\/a> from the \u201cCosts of War Project\u201d from Brown University\u2019s Watson Institute, by the end of 2018, the U.S. War on Terror cost America taxpayers more than $5.6 trillion<\/strong>, which is an average of $23,386 per taxpayer.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs of late September 2017, the United States wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria and the additional spending on Homeland Security, and the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs since the 9\/11 attacks totaled more than $4.3 trillion in current dollars through FY2017. Adding likely costs for FY2018 and estimated future spending on veterans, the costs of war total more than $5.6 trillion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As The Nation noted<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, that estimate does not include several factors such as \u201cthe psychic costs to the Americans mangled in one way or another in those never-ending conflicts. They don\u2019t include the costs to this country\u2019s infrastructure, which has been\u00a0crumbling\u00a0while taxpayer dollars flow copiously and in a remarkably\u2014in these years, almost uniquely\u2014bipartisan fashion into what\u2019s still laughably called \u2018national security.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When we take one step forward, like we did on Saturday in Doha, Qatar, by signing the agreement to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, we take ten steps back. Only a few days after signing the agreement, the United States conducted an airstrike on Wednesday against the Taliban in Afghanistan\u2019s southern Helmand province. This preemptive bombing, we were told<\/strong><\/span>,<\/a> was a \u201cdefensive strike\u201d to disrupt an alleged \u201cexpected attack.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Sadly, after nearly 19 years, there is no sign that the War on Terror is ending anytime soon, but surely the United States is finally close to defeating Al Qaeda\u2014right?<\/span><\/p>\n