Since America was attacked in 2001, we have spent over $6 trillion on the Global War On Terror with no clear end in sight.

In the process, we’ve lost a lot of great men and women and continue to feel the effects of modern war culture at home as veterans riddled with post-traumatic stress and opiate-fueled un-wellness are cared for at VA hospitals around the country.

Sadly, I lost an employee to a drug overdose a year ago. I’ve also lost many friends who’ve fought and died in faraway places. And now it’s becoming clear that there was no real clear purpose or strategy behind the War on Terror, and that’s a fucking tragedy.

It’s why I’d like to run a Hunger Games of DC and livestream it. We’d randomly pick 12 two-talking political hacks, drop them in the middle of Syria, and let the games begin. They’d find out that life outside their protected green zone visits is very different. Let the culling commence…

Hard Facts

The data below was sourced from FCNL.

  • 313,000-336,000 civilians have been killed in U.S. wars since 2001: 43,000 in Afghanistan, 24,000 in Pakistan, and 184,000-207,000 in Iraq
  • 7,000 U.S. troops have been killed in war from 2001 through the end of 2018: 2,298 in Afghanistan and 4,572 U.S. troops in Iraq.
  • 173,000-177,000 local military and police members have been killed since 2001: 64,000 in Afghanistan and 48,000-52,000 in Iraq.
  • 136 American soldiers have died in other theaters of war
  • 52,010 U.S. troops have been wounded in war since 2001
  • At least 7,950 private contractors working for the Pentagon have died in war since 2001: 3,814 in Afghanistan and 3,588 in Iraq.
  • 2018 was the deadliest year for civilians with 3,804 deaths, including 927 children.
  • 2010 was the deadliest year of war in Afghanistan, with 499 U.S. servicemembers killed
  • August 2011 was the deadliest month of the war in Afghanistan
  • In 2009 more U.S. soldiers died from suicide than were killed in combat in either Iraq or Afghanistan

Veterans and Long-Term Effects

  • Roughly two million U.S. troops have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan; 1.2 million are now eligible for VA services; and 600,000 veterans have already been treated at veterans medical facilities
  • 970,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have registered disability claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
  • Nearly 50 percent of returning troops are eligible for some level of disability payment
  • Future disability and healthcare costs for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is conservatively estimated to be $600-900 billion
  • Over 78,000 veterans have died from suicide since 2005
  • It is estimated that one in three soldiers who served in Iraq or Afghanistan will develop PTSD
  • The Rand Corporation has estimated that approximately 320,000 servicemembers may have experienced traumatic brain injury during their deployment.
  • In 2014, an average of 20 veterans died from suicide every day, totaling 7,300 for the year.
  • In 2018, there were 321 active-duty suicides, the highest in six years.

I was hoping Joe would have his shit together enough to start looking at the world differently but that’s clearly not the case. Like a drunk uncle with bad manners at the dinner table, he’s blundered with Iran and Russia straight out of the gate and we have lost major ground.

Putin continues to outwit America’s schizophrenic foreign policy as, perhaps, the most powerful leader in the world. Dropping a few bombs over Syria and employing U.S. sanctions will only escalate the already potent Russian digital warfare against the fragile American technology ecosystem.

One place where we have a major weakness is our outdated financial technology systems, and that’s just for starters.