In August, 2014, the US-led “coalition” began bombing Iraq and Syria to, in the words of President Obama, “degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIS.” For nearly two years — despite President Obama announcing last November that ISIS was “contained” — the bombing has continued unabated.
A milestone was reached this month, however, as the US coalition dropped its 50,000th bomb against Iraq and Syria. With each bomb costing on average somewhere around $50,000, those bombs have cost US (for the most part) taxpayers at least two and a half billion dollars. Factor in the cost of keeping the bombers in the air, the cost of training the pilots, maintenance, etc. and the cost skyrockets upward from there.
In fact, as of February of this year, the US “war on ISIS” has cost more than $6 billion, to the boundless delight of the Beltway defense contractors.
There will be plenty of money for the other contractors if the bombing finally ceases and the US reaches its real goal of overthrowing Syrian president Assad: Imagine how much damage to infrastructure, environment, etc. will have been done by 50,000 bombs. The US taxpayers will pay once to blow the place up and then pay again to build it back up. Except like in Afghanistan, nothing will actually be rebuilt. The money will just disappear.
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