Another $11.6 Billion for Obama/Trump Wars? Hell No!

President Obama waited until after the election last week to propose an unpopular idea. He asked Congress for $11.6 billion extra — outside the huge existing military budget — for wars. Here’s his letter including all the gory details. Please read it yourself when you begin to hope that I’m making up some of what follows.

warsuppwebThis massive pile of money, equivalent to the annual spending that the United Nations says could end the lack of clean drinking water globally, adds between 1% and 2% to U.S. military spending — but is by itself more than the entire military budget of all but 14 other nations on earth, 12 of which top-spending nations are U.S. allies.

This $11.6 billion would be added to another $73.7 billion in off-the-books war spending already appropriated. That’s military spending outside the gargantuan military budget and supposedly for emergency wars that just shockingly arose, although actually for a half-dozen permawars plus basic profiteering and preparation for future slaughters.

While nothing would prevent this new money from being used for any war that the current or next president desires, it is requested in large part for the wars in Afghanistan and Syria/Iraq. That includes supplying other militaries such as the Iraqi, Afghan, and Kurdish armed forces with free gifts of instruments of mass murder, as well as expanding U.S. military facilities in Somalia, Mauritania, Chad, Turkey, and elsewhere.

The unfathomable sum of $11.6 billion would go to fund war efforts that the next U.S. president has sometimes said he wants to end (the arming of fighters in Syria) or not commented on at all. It would also give the Afghan military U.S.-made helicopters so that it no longer uses Russian ones. This follows lobbying by Lockheed Martin and Textron that warned of “tensions over President Vladimir Putin’s military intervention in Ukraine and Syria,” tensions that may not apply come January 20.

Also requested: miniature killer drones that can be launched by U.S. troops in Iraq — troops whose boots are, despite White House rhetoric, on the ground.

Also requested: a big chunk of change for secret operations that Congress is expected to fund with our money despite not knowing what they are. And another for secret research and testing (which sounds less like an “emergency” war than profiteering on the preparations for more wars down the road).

Also in there: funding for a major war on drugs in Libya and West Africa. Not to mention: funds for USAID operations of the sort that have facilitated violent coups in places like Ukraine.

While the President’s request claims to devote 50% to non-defense efforts and includes aid for refugees while funding the creation of more of them, in fact 0% of this is related to defending the United States, and only 14% of people in the U.S. believe these wars are making us safer. Meanwhile, most of the supposedly “non-defense” spending requested is part and parcel of a military mission and devoted to things like “security,” “stabilization,” and “police training.”

A petition has been launched opposing this war bill. One reason it might gain traction, ironically, is that resistance has begun to build against Republican wars (what the large peace movement of 2002-2006 was aimed at). It’s ironic because these are, of course, the Wars that President Obama has continued or begun during the last nearly eight years. We can’t know which good and which horrible statements a President Trump will follow through on. But it’s possible that with the right pressure and influences he will end some of these wars — also that, if we cannot prevent it, he will escalate or initiate others. All we can know for sure is that millions of people in the United States will be suddenly more willing to oppose the wars Trump tries to wage.

Some months back, Obama was absurdly talking about undoing his self-created permission to kill anyone anywhere with a missile from a drone, so that nobody would suffer the indignity of being dismembered by a Republican. Yet, now, post-election, Obama has dropped that idea. After all, once you’ve firmly established the presidential power of inventing “laws” and violating “laws” and shredding the “laws” of the previous president, what difference does it make what you try to impose on the next emperor?

Not only is Obama passing along unprecedented powers to spy, imprison, torture, kill, operate in secret, and persecture whistleblowers, but he is now trying to make sure all war operations are abundantly funded for his successor. There ought, in a reasonable world, to be a huge percentage of us across the political spectrum prepared to stop this cold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

33 Responses

  1. Stop useless wars that are killing millions of innocent people and are only enriching the military industrial machine.

  2. Hell fucking no!!!! It’s time we ALL wake up and demand a halt in absurd defense spending! C’mon folks……………..revolt is in the air!!! let’s keep it going, okay? !! Peace.

  3. The Korean war has never ended. We lost the Vietnam war. The Iraq war strengthened al Qaeda and gave rise to ISIS. The Afghan war has never ended. Toppling Qaddafi made Libya a failed state. The Syrian war has turned into a free-for-all with American, Russian and Turkish proxies fighting each other. The Saudis are committing war crimes on our behalf in Yemen. When will it be enough? We don’t need to buy more results like this with our taxes and lives.

    1. More money is needed to complete the Zionist goal of the Greater Israel Project. So the remaining countries on the list of countries to be destroyed indeed will be destroyed. The way to control the world is to control the world’s energy reserves, and the US already has its base in Iraq through which it’ll carry out its objective for Zionist Israel. And that’s why the US sends military hardware to Iraq to supposedly aid in fightig ISIS, all the while that hardwire is actually what equips ISIS. It’s a shame, but what is more of a shame is the fact that so many people want wars, or at least they are too afraid to speak out against them.

  4. Why tear apart civilizations for democracy that doesn’t even exist in our own country? Humans are the most destructive species on the planet, ruining the ecosystem for everything else alive. What will it take to put focus on a united effort to work as a species to repair what we have so recklessly wrought onthe planet and ourselves?

  5. Why don’t we spend this money on a worthy cause, such as helping create clean drinking water across the globe!

  6. Why waste all that money on the arms industry when it could be put to some useful purpose – education , health ……

  7. Trump is right about one thing. No more American blood should be shed for “allies” like Saudi Arabia, for the oil companies, or just for Mohammedans to have fun killing “American infidels” in a shooting gallery that never closes. No more money, that could make for more jobs and improved infrastructure here, should be spent on other countries’ defense.

  8. Military /industrial complex rules the world. They are the shadow government, foolish citizens “believe” their vote counts, when leaders are chosen years in advance. I read that Obamas first job was for a CIA front. That his mother worked for the Ford (CIA) Foundation.Her boss was Tim Geitners father.And CITIBANK gave Obama their list of who to place in positions to fill his cabinet. He chose almost all of them. Face reality.

  9. google PNAC. You will find “Project for the New American Century”, a right-wing Republican plot hatched in the 1990’s to rule the world thru OIL. Bush was installed to do this, the chaos in E.Asia incl. ISIS is the result. Rome, Britain now USA. Will we never learn that Divine Love, Universal Truth will bring Planetary Peace.

  10. Blood Money, Money for Blood, They Need the money to keep your blood flowing at a, er, healthy rate.
    The people who control the world, if they wanted,could stop all the wars in a heartbeat. Peace is cheap, by comparison, it’s peanuts.
    The fact is they enjoy it, THEY, enjoy it. Why else would they perpetuate
    something they wouldn’t enjoy? They divide people with the time honoured ways, religion, nationalism, fear, propaganda, bribery, some ideology people will buy into, some fantasy.
    They enjoy dividing people to control them, pitching them against one another.
    They enjoy war. The shadow people behind governments, the real power.
    They feed off your blood and you pay them too do it.
    Until there is a global shift of consciousness, and we begin to think with our Hearts, there will be no end to war.
    Think with your Heart,
    Listen For – Not, To.

  11. For a moment I thought I was reading “The Minority Report.” Judging from the headline here, Donald Trump apparently is guilty of future crimes. (I’ve even seen several petitions calling for his impeachment… two months before his swearing in!) I don’t trust him any more than I do Hillary—I voted for Jill Stein—but I’m going to watch his actions carefully before screaming for impeachment or accusing him of escalating global war.

    A web site that fosters peace ought to be emphasizing any positive indications by the future president, not blaming him for the current warmonger’s shenanigans. Trump certainly has done more to avoid confrontation with the Russian Bear than either Obama or Clinton. Nevertheless, it will require diligence and action to make sure he remembers that he is serving We the People, not the corporate war machine.

  12. How many times does military intervention have to fail miserably, even on its own terms – never mind the problems decades later that are never accounted for, before we can finally say it is a blunt instrument that often doesn’t work, and the trite cliche of a good offence being the best defence is finally discredited?

  13. HELL NO! STOP THE KILLING!!!!!!!!!!
    IS PEACE BORING TO YOU?

    NO MORE FUNDING FOR WARS. STOP THE WARRING AND SPEND THE MONEY ON SHIFTING ENERGY DEPENDENCIES FROM OIL AND GAS TO SOLAR AND WIND. PUT THE MONEY TOWARD EDUCATION, INFRASTRUCTURE, JOBS, PEACE TALKS, AFFORDABLE HOUSING, MEDICAL CARE…………….$85 BILLION DOLLARS SHOULD AT LEAST BE CUT IN HALF!!! THIS IS SHAMEFUL!!!!

    STOP MAKING CORPORATE MILITARY MACHINE COMPANIES RICH!!

  14. HOW is it that the USA can spend so much money on the MILITARY and does not have money for domestic issues: e.g.
    for fighting poverty, having $$$$ for health care and social security and many more domestic issues. What has happened to President Obama….have the Oligarchs got to him? How may American citizens prefer giving money for the MILITARY but refuse allowing $$$$ for domestic issues?
    IS all this a question of immorality or AMORALITY?
    LORD HAVE MERCY ON THE USA.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles

Our Theory of Change

How To End War

Move for Peace Challenge
Antiwar Events
Help Us Grow

Small Donors Keep Us Going

If you select to make a recurring contribution of at least $15 per month, you may select a thank-you gift. We thank our recurring donors on our website.

This is your chance to reimagine a world beyond war
WBW Shop
Translate To Any Language