Permanent Warfare: The Main Points on the War on Terror

Permanent Warfare
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Permanent Warfare
1.0 Budget
Before the War on Terror started, there were no budget deficits. Budget deficits came after the commencement of the this fighting since the United States military required more financial resources to acquire more weapons, new sophisticated artillery, and to hire more combatants to fight for the country in Afghanistan and Iraq. During the War on Terror, the military expenses increased considerably. In the decade after 9/11, military spending in the United States rose by 50%, adjusted for inflation. In comparison, the expense on non-military programs such as science, public transit, healthcare, and education increased by just 13.5% over similar period (National Priorities Project, 2015). Total expenditure of the military comprises an estimated $16 billion in military spending for the Department of Homeland Security. In the 2015 financial year, military expenses accounted for 54% of all federal discretionary spending, which was $598.5 billion.
It is notable that expenditures of the military include spending on nuclear weaponry; regular activities of the Department of Defence; international military assistance; war spending; as well as other Pentagon-related expenditures (National Priorities Project, 2015). In military expenses, the United States spends more than all other countries. In the year 2013, the world’s spending on military was over $1.7 trillion, with the United States accounting for 37% of that total spending (National Priorities Project, 2015). Until the year 2011, America had spent in excess of $2.5 trillion on the Afghanistan/Iraq wars (Bilmes & Stiglitz, 2011). As a result of the increased spending on military, taxation increased to about 1.3% of America’s Gross Domestic Product from less than 0.7% prior to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and now in the fight against ISIS (Baker, 2014). The government uses the threat of terrorism, which is intentionally overstated, to justify the tax increases as well as military expenses.
2.0 Human Resources
During the Vietnam War, a total of 9,087,000 soldiers fought for America from the year 1964 to the year 1975. In comparison, since the United States commenced the Afghan War in the year 2001 and the war in Iraq in the year 2003, an estimated 2.5 million members of the United States Coast Guard, Air Force, Marines, Navy, Army as well as other related National Guard and Reserve units have been deployed to these countries (Adams, 2013). This is a comparatively small number of soldiers than those who fought during the Vietnam War. At the moment, there are about 60,000 American soldiers remaining in Afghanistan. To deploy a single U.S soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan, it costs the country about $1 million annually (The News Pakistan, 2013). In the illegal funding of counter revolutionaries during the 1980s in Nicaragua, the use of surrogate soldiers was not successful; it failed and so did President Reagan’s policies. Opposition to this funding increased amongst the United States public (BBC News, 2014).
3.0 Drones
In the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, drones have been used increasingly by the Allied forces led by the United States. Researchers have found that...