"Show me the money...!!!!"

[Fox3snapshot]

The latest from the Pentagon on US defense spending.....

Afghanistan and Iraq Ops costing USD$5 Billion per month

USD$159 Billion alone to invade and occupy Iraq

And another USD$22 Billion on Operation Noble Eagle to continue CAP over major US cities.......

:sad:

Yipes....that's gotta be UK, France, Oz and Kiwi annual defense budgets combined!
:eek:

[Widger]

Think of all the hospitals, schools and improvement on housing that could have bought to the whole Middle East. Now that would have possibly been a much better way of improving the image of Western nation amongst those countries.

OK OK I know, Tyrants, Despots, the Taliban and all that, but the USSR did not fall by bombs but by the slow insidious creep of the subtle fingers of capitalisation and others wanting a part of it.

OK NOMEX suit on....ready for the flaming!!!!!!!!

[handysnaks]

OK, I'm first up then Widger:D

No, the USSR didn't fall by bombs but it didn't expand any further due to large expenditure on defence by the 'Western World'. This gave capitalism the time needed to make its happy mark (Deutsch or ost!).

That expenditure did include bombs (really big ones!...coo), missiles, troops, aircraft........

[boswell bear]

sounds a reasonable figure to me, there's oil to be had in those countries and my van only does 25mpg :D

[glum]

Yep, lets not pretend otherwise: That money is merely speculation. The accumulation starts when the oil starts flowing under US control...

[Lee Jung]

Contracts and tenders are being given/taken by the Iraqi MOO now and have been for a good few months. The 2 I know about have gone to a Turkish/Iraqi company and a Canadian company. Hardly Texas George taking over Iraqi oil.

Is the Shia led government commited to pay reparations to the US? Are US companies any more likely to be recommended for contracts by the MOO? Does the US get cheaper oil?

No, I don't think so.

I can't see where the US financially benefits from Iraqi oil.

[Lafyar Cokov]

I can't see where the US financially benefits from Iraqi oil.

errr I think its called price stability....
Stable(ish), american backed governments in the Middle East = no major fluctuations in the oil price. With a multi-trillion Dollar economy - the back-bone of which is underpinned by (the price of) oil - a 1 cent increase in the cost of a barrel does horiffic things to your budget
(of the magnitude that $159 Billion is a drop in the ocean). Hence Stable Oil price=stable economy.


...I think..... :D

[Fox3snapshot]

Waking up to the daily news on the English FM radio shows here in the UAE which routinely (morbidly) start with news from the West Bank, then onto complete carnage, another ambush and bunch of kidnappings in Iraq and then onto....more carnage in Afghanistan, I do wonder where the whole thing is going.

:(

This is then of course brought into context immediately by the excited and completely surreal update on the results from the FA cup semi-final or the wonderful news that Blue won the "What's On Awards" and its ladies night at Scarlets!

This, sadly, on a typical day's news is the best the station can do.....

When will it end...Iran next??

Time for another wine......hic!
:{

[Trooping]

With an intial deposit of $159 Billion to start the war, and then another $5 Billion a month to keep it going, Im starting to believe a little article I read once that Osama and his cronies were planning to win the war simply by sending the US broke.

Im no economist and dont know how it all works, but I wonder how a country, even the US, can sustain that sort of spending as the war is nowhere near over. Or does war bring about a propering economy? Is the US going broke a possible scenario?

Then again, I always wonder how our oil got under their land.....

Trooping.

[maxy101]

Alternatively, I guess that you could argue that the US is getting value for money from its armed forces as it has to pay for them whether deployed or not. A good opportunity to test and sell those expensive weapons systems against an enemy that has no chance of defeating them.