By Atilio A. Boron on August 1, 2021
photo: Bill Hackwell
A few days ago Joe Biden announced that the troops stationed in Afghanistan will return to the United States on August 31, 2021. This date will mark the shameful failure of “Operation Freedom’s Sentinel” as well as that of NATO’s “Resolute Support Mission”. Indeed, following the 9/11 attacks, the United States and its European allies invaded Afghanistan and began the longest military adventure in U.S. history.
A proper understanding of this news requires not losing sight of the many wars that were unleashed after the tragic events of 2001. True, Afghanistan was the longest, but it was not the only one. Although the most important theaters of these operations were located in that country and Iraq, U.S. troops and their allies were involved in significant military actions in Pakistan, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and the Philippines. Despite the negligence with which the hegemonic press covered these events, subsequent investigations showed that at least 801,000 people died as a result of these wars and a staggering 37 million more were displaced from their homes, condemned to a nomadic and miserable life, in many cases forever.
And what about the astronomical economic costs of these conflicts? As of 2020, the federal government had spent $6.4 trillion. This figure includes appropriations approved by Congress and interest payments on loans taken out to finance the wars, which, to Wall Street’s delight, were financed by borrowing from the private sector, driving the federal government deficit and the national debt through the roof. It is estimated that in 2029 this will reach 89 trillion dollars, which “would place the country’s debt/GDP ratio at 277%, surpassing Japan’s current debt/GDP ratio of 27%”. Successive U.S. administrations blithely embarked on war without mustering the genuine resources to finance them. In contrast, Harry Truman pushed through a temporary increase of up to 92% in the tax rates of higher income sectors to finance the Korean War and Lyndon Johnson did the same to defray the costs of the Vietnam War, raising them by up to 77%. George W. Bush, on the other hand, reduced the tax burden on the rich instead of raising it, and his successors did nothing to put an end to such folly.
These figures demonstrate the formidable profits that these operations have produced for the military-industrial complex and also for the financial vultures of Wall Street. They offer fabulous business opportunities regardless of their human costs or the fact that Washington has only reaped partial and ephemeral victories, as in Iraq, or traumatic defeats as in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Many experts claim that the United States can no longer win wars, yet it continues to fight them. The reason is easy to understand: they exponentially feed the profits of the financial fraction of US capitalism and, to a lesser extent, those of the traditional military-industrial complex, that is, the “hard state” of US imperialism.
The above coincides with Jimmy Carter’s pained observation when he wondered why China is ahead of us. “I normalized diplomatic relations in 1979,” he said. “Since 1979, do you know how many times China has been at war with anybody? None. And we, on the other hand, have continued to fight wars ever since.” Carter concluded that the United States is “the most bellicose nation in the history of the world” because of a desire to impose American values and interests on other countries, and suggested that China is investing its resources in projects such as high-speed rail and basic infrastructure rather than wasting them on defense. Of course, China does not have a “military-industrial-financial complex” that desperately needs wars to earn huge dividends and to pay the extravagant fees, bonuses and various remunerations pocketed by the CEOs of its giant transnationals. This is the reason why, unfortunately, peace has been such an elusive goal and wars, on the other hand, proliferate almost uncontrollably. There is nothing to suggest that this will change in the coming years.
Source: Pagina 12, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English