As of today, January 31, the Associated Press reports that 1766 US personnel have died in Afghanistan, and 15,310 have been wounded. Tens of thousands of Afghanis have likewise been killed or wounded, though reliable numbers are hard to come by. The National Priorities Project tells us that also as of today, we have spent approximately $497 billion dollars on the war in Afghanistan, with many more billions to come.
Are we safe yet? How many more Afghanis and young Americans have to die before we feel safe? Are we getting our money's worth? Should we demand more kills per dollar?
Our priorities are so fucked up....
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1 comment:
Now Ty, I think you're trying to inflate the cost of the war in Afghanistan (alluding to the # of deaths/injuries per dollar) by revealing only the number of American and Afghan deaths. I'm sure you could reduce the cost ratio by including the deaths and injuries of the other NATO and non-NATO forces supporting us in that noble endeavour. (Unless, of course, you think that the 397 Brits, 158 Canadians, French, Germans,Italians,Danes, Poles, Spanish,Australians,Dutch, Romanians,Georgians, Norwegians, Estonians, Hungarians, Latvians, Czechs,Turks,and 1 lone Lithuanian [total 982] who died don't really count because the U.S. is actually the only country that matters here.) But wait! There's more!
You could further reduce the cost per death by including the related out-of country deaths which number just shy of 100. (We won't count those injured...well, I started, but quit after 5,000 because some countries weren't reporting.) But then, to be fair, we should probably add in the millions of dollars these countries are spending putting their troops and equipment there but then it might really look like no one was getting their money's worth so...well...nevermind
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