War and Terrorism

By Chad, Zach, and Alex

BackgroundOn 9/11/01, several airplanes were hijacked by terrorists, leading

to the destruction of four U.S. buildings (left). This prompted the U.S. to begin the war in Afghanistan (right).

The U.S. invaded Iraq in mid-2003, as we suspected that the country had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

On the other hand, over 4,000 American soldiers, and 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died in Iraq since then. The wars’ total cost

is over 1 trillion dollars.

Costs of the War

• President Bush funded the Office of Homeland Security with $40,000,000,000 when it was initially created

• Since 2001, over $1,150,000,000,000 has been spent on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, costing Massachusetts alone over $32,000,000,000, and Dover, MA over $79,000,000

• At least $20,000,000,000 has been paid to the KBR, a global engineering company, for supplies for the wars

Economic Impact on the Future• We have spent over $1,150,000,000,000 on

the two wars alone. If the cost of the wars stopped, and Americans gave the government 100% of their income for a year, each of the 138.5 million American workers would have to pay $8,303 (17.5% of America’s per capita GDP).

• Together, the cost of the two wars form over 8.2% of our $14,000,000,000,000 of national debt.

Environmental Impact on the Future• Oil spills, and oil well explosions/fires are

common during wartime, and cause pollution and destruction of wildlife habitats.

• The adverse effects of war on the environment are often ignored. Dr. Michael Rands, director of BirdLife International, said, "Until recently the impact of war on nature has often been ignored or obscured by the conflict itself. As the 1990-1991 Gulf War showed, such conflicts have devastating effects on the environment, biodiversity and the quality of life of local people long after the cessation of hostilities."

Viewpoints of Democrats• In the 2008 vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, Biden stated,

“Barack Obama offered a clear plan: Shift responsibility to Iraqis over the next 16 months. Draw down our combat troops.… Barack Obama and I agree fully and completely on one thing: You’ve got to have a time line to draw down the troops and shift responsibility to the Iraqis. This is a fundamental difference between us, we’ll end this war. For John McCain, there’s no end in sight to end this war.”

• In a 2008 interview about removing troops from Iraq, Hillary Clinton stated, “Well, I intend to try to take nearly all of them out within a year, but obviously it’s going to take a lot of planning. I don’t think the administration has done the planning.… We have more than 100,000 Americans there in all kinds of capacities. I think it would be appropriate that we take care of the Iraqis who translated, and drove for, and protected our troops. So this is not going to be easy to do, but I think you can take out one to two brigades a month.”

Viewpoints of Republicans• In the book Decision Points, by former president George W. Bush, he discusses the

problems with our approach to the Iraq war. “The first is that we did not respond more quickly or aggressively when the security situation started to deteriorate after Saddam's regime fell. In the ten months following the invasion, we cut troop levels from 192,000 to 109,000. Many of the remaining troops focused on training the Iraqi army and police, not protecting the Iraqi people.” (p. 268-269)

• “We applaud Bush for pursuing from the beginning a comprehensive strategy through which the United States works with its allies to ensure that international agreements against the proliferation of WMD are observed and enforced….” – Republican Party Platform, p. 10

Sources• Slide 2: http://www.iraqbodycount.org/• Slide 2: http://current.com/news-and-politics/88864583_violence-in-afghanistan-pushes-

the-death-toll-over-8-000-last-year.htm• Slide 2: http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/• Slide 2: http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/conspiracy-theory-6.jpg• Slide 2: http://ontheissues.org/Background_War_+_Peace.htm• Slides 4, 5: http://costofwar.com/en/• Slides 4, 5, 6, 7, 8: Microsoft Office clip art• Slide 5: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html• Slide 5: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2004/01/the-american-workforce-strong-

facts-trump-weak-myths• Slide 6: http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/sayno/birdlife.html• Slide 8: http://ontheissues.org/2008/Hillary_Clinton_War_+_Peace.htm