How much is war? Iraq, Ukraine and Poland. Time for a war tax

"As oil is known to be thicker and more valuable than blood, which, unlike oil, is simply a renewable natural material," wrote Tomasz Gabiś in the “Report on Iraq War” published 20 years ago. This conviction speaks more about war, its costs and geopolitics than many books.

How much is Russia's war with the United States, conducted in Ukraine? How much does this war cost to attack Ukraine? How much does Poland cost – the facilities of our east neighbour? How do you figure that out? Looking for answers to these questions sooner or later, we will find a book "War for $3 trillion. Real cost of Iraq War” published in 2008. Its authors are Nobel laureate in economics, Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes, a public finance specialist at Harvard University.

"If it had not been written that it was happening in the US, with a clear conscience it could have been considered that it was Russia or any banana republic" - wrote prof. Tadeusz Kowalik from the Institute of economical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

I'll remind you, 20 years ago, 20 March 2003 United States based on political lies together with the ‘wanted coalitions’, they launched a ‘special military operation’ under the codename ‘Iracan Freedom’. any forty countries joined the coalition, headed by the United States, Britain, Australia and Poland. The armed mission ended in 2021 with the spectacular withdrawal of Americans from Iraq.

(In the 20th century, the second planet slaughter, called planet War II, lasted six years. The “War for Peace” of the Russians in Afghanistan lasted 10 years. "War on Democracy" by Americans in Iraq lasted eighteen years. Who's more?) Stiglitz and Bilmes are trying to realize the cost of the Iraq War and sum it up. They're trying to make the American people aware of the consequences of the war elections that the superpower will carry out in the future.

A Terrible Error

"Today it is clear that the US invasion of Iraq was a terrible mistake. Nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers died and over 58,000 were injured, suffered various injuries or suffered serious diseases. 100,000 soldiers returned from the war with serious intellectual disorders that will be chronic in large part. Although Saddam Hussein's government was fatal, the Iraqis present are actually surviving worse than in his day. Roads, schools, hospitals, residential buildings and museums are destroyed in the country, and its citizens have more hard access to electricity and water than before the war," noted Stiglitz and Bilmes.

The war effort of the “voluntary coalition” led to the death of 655 000 civilian Iraqis (source: Bloomberg School of Public wellness of Johns Hopkins University). In turn John Pilger in the movie “The War You Can't See” claims that at least a million people died. About 2 million Iraqis were forced to flee the country. Another 2 million left their homes despite remaining in Iraq.

"In view of the suffering of the Iraq war, even reasoning about financial costs seems heartless. Dry numbers will never give the scale of suffering to those who died or were mutilated for life.

However, we are convinced that knowing the cost of this war is essential," the authors of the book "War for 3 trillion dollars" emphasize.

War costs

The cost of the Iraq war was expected to be small. That's what politicians, military and civilian servants said. A good example is Andrew Natsios, admin of the American global improvement Agency (USAID), who claimed on behalf of president Bush's government in April 2003 that Iraq could be rebuilt for $1.7 billion. A fewer months later, Bush demanded $18.4 billion from the United States legislature to rebuild civilian facilities in Iraq specified as schools, hospitals, power grids and roads.

Stiglitz and Bilmes sum up the cost of war for the American payer at about $3 trillion, and for the remainder of the planet at twice as much. This is simply a "moderately realistic" option.

With little careful analyses, the full war could cost as much as 5 trillion. Billion is simply a million million or a 1000 billion. For comparison, the budget of the Polish State in 2023 will amount to PLN 604.5 billion.

Stiglitz and Bilmes in their script assumed that a full of 2.1 million soldiers would participate in the conflict and that the US military mission would last until 2017.

The only slaughter (war), which cost the United States more, was planet War II, “when 16.3 million American soldiers fought for 4 years on different fronts, and the combined costs (in 2007 dollars, including inflation) reached about $5 trillion.” The cost per soldier was little than $100,000, while the cost of the Iraq War was over $400,000 per soldier.

No reliable information

The authors of the 3 Billion Dollar War point out that the real cost of the Iraq War is hard to estimate. There are a fewer reasons. First of all, the U.S. government hides or does not bear quite a few costs, which I will explain in a moment. Secondly, the government uses a defective accounting system. It notes the expenses incurred today, but ignores future costs, specified as wellness care and disability pensions for veterans. Thirdly, the government has been utilizing for years the method of ad hoc financing of war from sources reserved for "unforeseeable, unpredictable and unplanned in advance".

"Neither the Department of defence nor legislature has reliable information on how much war costs and how funds are being used, nor do they have data from the past useful in dealing with future financial needs," as quoted in the book Government Accounting Office.

Budget costs

"The most common injuries and diseases caused by current wars will include:

1) brain harm due to injuries;
2) Post-traumatic stress;
3) amputations;
4) harm to the spinal cord.

Among them, the most controversy will origin and entail the top cost of post-traumatic stress," says Paul Sullivan, programme manager of Veterans for America.

Out of the money awarded by legislature for the war, disability benefits are financed, which are granted to all veterans.

It is worth noting at this point that in the case of the Iraq War there was amazingly a large number of those who suffered injuries or injuries and survived – to 15 victims of each death. For comparison, during planet War II, there were 1.6 wounded soldiers per man killed.

The State covers the costs of standard medical procedures, psychiatric treatment, physiotherapy, rehabilitation and prosthesis. Veterans may apply for assistance in obtaining and paying housing, peculiar grants for obtaining education, means of transport, adapting housing to the needs of disabled persons, occupational rehabilitation, life insurance, welfare and compensation allowances paid to widows after veterans and their children.

The U.S. payer pays for “military operations, transport, deployment, food and accommodation of soldiers, deployment of troops' troops of the National defender and Reserve, food and supplies, training of Iraqi forces, acquisition and repair of weapons and another equipment, ammunition, payment of combat allowances, provision of medical care to soldiers serving and returning to the country to veterans, reconstruction and payments to countries specified as Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey for their logistical assistance.

Additionally, the cost of war is the cost of demobilization, including the movement of troops and equipment to the country. After transporting the equipment to the US, it needs to be repaired, transported to the right places, stored and redistributed. Currently, Poland plays this function in the war in Ukraine.

Hidden social and economical costs

Social and economical costs disagree from budgetary costs due to the fact that they are not borne by the government. Nevertheless, they are a immense burden on society. They are carried by veterans, their families or communities in which they live.

How much does a soldier's life cost? The Pentagon values life at $500,000 – this is the sum paid to the heirs of the deceased for post-mortem checks and life insurance. A much higher compensation would be granted to a soldier if he were injured or died in a simple car accident or in a workplace. In turn, the U.S. government estimates the failure due to the death of a young man at $7.2 million.

This is the ‘value of static life’.

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Stiglitz and Bilmes compose that, in fact, a 100 percent disabled veteran will receive disability benefit, wellness care and any additional benefits paid from the state budget. “But all of this will amount to a tiny part of the cost of looking after a young individual who needs aid dressing, eating, washing and doing another regular activities around the clock and 7 days a week, as well as constant medical care. The real cost of providing this care is borne by individual else – possibly a wife, a husband, 1 of the parents or a volunteer from the local community."

At this point, it is worth noting that the sums paid to veterans by the Department of Veterans and those who endure from serious intellectual illness do not come close to what they could gain as healthy people.

Other economical costs are related to intellectual wellness disorders. Soldiers with diagnosed post-traumatic stress have importantly deteriorated their quality of life: they live in worse material conditions, have limited physical capacity, mediocre health, are affected by unemployment, spend days in bed and hotel to violence. Veterans who experience intellectual disorders are “at hazard of suicide, drug addiction, divorce, occupation failure or failure of homes.”

The cost of worsening the quality of life in veterans is besides linked to the unimaginable suffering of "serious or very serious" physical pain. This pain involves, for example, “brain injuries, amputations, burns, blindness and irreversible harm to the spine”. The consequence of suffering is regular usage pain medications. any veterans require regular assistance in washing, dressing and preparing meals. Soldiers with serious injuries end up as “plants” increasing with “permanent vegetative condition”.

Other costs that the government hides from society are the costs of extra nursing care and home care. These costs shall be borne by veteran household members from their own income.

It is besides crucial to bear in head cases where a household associate resigns to care for a veteran. There is besides the cost of stress and emotional burdens on the families of erstwhile soldiers. These are peculiarly hard situations for low income families.

Other incalculable costs include the dissolution of marriages and full families. Despair for those who have lost hearing, sight or limb.

Stiglitz and Bilmes besides rise the cost that Americans bear in emergency actions during natural disasters. They give an example of the failure of a rescue action at the time of Hurricane Katrina, erstwhile at the time of his impact there were no hands to aid due to the fact that 7,000 National defender soldiers were in Iraq.

Corruption and increased costs on arms

"The invasion of Iraq opened fresh opportunities for private companies specialising in the protection of armed forces. Only the State Department itself spent over $4 billion on bodyguards in 2007, while 3 years earlier spending on this goal was $1 billion.

In 2007, private bodyguards working for companies specified as Blackwater and DynCorp made up to $1222 a day, or $445,000 a year. On the another hand, the sergeant in the army received a regular wage of $140 to 190, along with the additions, giving a yearly amount of $51,000 to 69,350. ...

The usage of contract service providers is in fact a partial privatisation of the armed forces. ...

The large-scale usage of suppliers posed another problem: large opportunities for speculation and corruption. A well-known case of suspected over-payments to military supplier Halliburton, headed by erstwhile Vice president Dick Cheney, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. ...

At least 90 fraud investigations were launched, involving billions of dollars, and which were committed in the execution of contracts for everything, ranging from food supplies to weapons. ...

In the United States, corruption occurs in a much little visible form than anywhere else. Payments are not the form of typical bribes, but the form of donations to the electoral campaigns of both parties.

From 1998 to 2003, Halliburton spent a full of $1 146,248 to support the Republican Party, and $55,650 amounted to his contributions to the Democratic Party. On lucrative contracts without tenders, the company earned at least $19.3 billion. ...

The excessive costs incurred by the government are reflected in the excessive profits achieved by military equipment and services providers, who (aside from oil companies) are the real wins in this war. Halliburton's stock price has risen by 229 percent since the start of the war, which is even higher than the benefits of another companies supplying the army, specified as General Dynamics (134 percent), Raytheon (117 percent), Lockheed Martin (105 percent) and Northrop Grumman (78 percent).(...) Giant corporations have become the champions of system-playing. erstwhile the companies get large contracts – frequently utilizing underestimated first cost estimates – the government becomes so dependent on their services that it is almost impossible to dispose of them.

What have the Americans sacrificed?

What could we do with one, 2 or 3 trillion dollars – the authors of the book ask themselves:

"For $1 trillion, you could build 8 million extra housing; cover the yearly employment costs of about 15 million extra teachers in public schools; pay 120 million children in extended classes per year; pay yearly wellness insurance for 530 million children; supply 43 million students with four-year scholarships at public colleges. Now let us multiply all these numbers by three.”

By comparison, Stiglitz and Bilmes mention another data: eliminating illiteracy in Africa by 2015 would cost as much as Americans paid for 2 weeks of war. For aid to Africa, the United States spends as much annually as the cost of war in Iraq in 10 days.

Arlington Military Cemetery, photo. vcudnik au Pixabay

Future reforms – war tax

One chapter in the book “The War for 3 Billion Dollars” is entitled “Learning on Your Own Mistakes: Reforms for the Future”. The authors propose 18 reforms. For deficiency of space, I'll name only four. Firstly, wars lasting more than a year should not be financed by additional "ad hoc" funds, which excludes average control procedures. Secondly, the government should make a comprehensive set of accounts for military finances covering both military operations and social and wellness benefits of soldiers and veterans. Thirdly, legislature should defend the US from privatization of the armed forces.

The most interesting improvement for me is proposal number 9:

"It should be assumed that the costs of any conflict lasting more than a year should be borne by current taxpayers by the imposition of additional war tax."

Stiglitz and Bilmes write: “War becomes besides easy for America. The average American is not asked to hazard his own life or the lives of his children in Iraq [Since 1991, there has been no compulsory essential military service in the United States—ed.]. Nor is it demanded that he pay higher taxes. War is funded by borrowing. The combination of a volunteer army with the financing of war by means of loans made it possible for most Americans initially to support the war and it was unnecessary to ask them at all whether they would be willing to fight on it by sacrificing their own lives or the lives of their children. Would they be willing to pay $25,000 from their own household (and their children's money) for this war? The incentives for the average Americans to act as a means of controlling political balance against the abuse of President's power were not working properly.

We are convinced that – and this is simply a minimum condition – the financial costs of war should be borne by the surviving citizens, and should not be simply passed on to the next generation. This means that current expenditure must be covered by current gross and that the war taxation should be utilized to finance current expenditure. ...

Since the United States has been acting as the sole superpower, with the imbalance of military power even greater than the imbalance of economical power (on reinforcement America spends 47 percent of the full amount allocated to this intent worldwide),

There is no another way to prevent the abuse of military force another than the active engagement of American citizens in controlling that force.

Killing should not be made easier by the fact that death and demolition origin bombs dropped from more than 1500 metres to people who are neither seen nor heard and which are, in most cases, classified as “lost among civilians by war”’.

I wonder what Poles would say about war tax. Would they agree to affect our country in the “coal of the willing” in Iraq?

Who benefits from war?

Stiglitz and Bilmes compose that it is “hard to find real wins outside the American petrochemical and defence industries”.

The profits and prices of the shares of ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron, Petro-China and Halliburton went up. "But the money spent on arms is money thrown distant in the mud: if it were spent on investments – whether for production facilities or equipment, whether for infrastructure, research, wellness care or education – the productivity of the economy and production in the future would increase."

Lessons for Poland

"The book deals with the war in Iraq, but can be treated as a symbolic survey on the cost of war in the 21st century," wrote prof. Tadeusz Kowalik from the Institute of economical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences about the book "War for 3 trillion dollars".

Unfortunately, the book did not receive appropriate attention in the Polish public debate. I'll offer her myself. national reading in 2023 as part of an yearly joint reading action of selected reading. Let me remind you that the action is organized by the president of Poland Andrzej Duda.

"Arms, if their component is besides their own production, are part of development. This must be taken into account, although the burdens are obvious. I have said many times that it is better to be indebted or even forced to make cuts in the budget in another areas than to be occupied," said PiS president Jarosław Kaczyński.

I agree with the president that we must arm ourselves, but we must besides make citizens aware of the real cost of war. And that's not what our country is doing today...

Education is needed to prevent citizens from engaging us in planet wars, called “missions” or “interventions”. We gotta look at their hands. It would besides be useful to discuss the war taxation which prof. Stiglitz proposes.

The Iraq War, like the Ukraine War, shows that for ‘blind moles’ (the hawks) in Washington, Moscow or Beijing "oil is thicker and more valuable than blood, which, unlike oil, is renewable natural material".

What does Warsaw say?

Tracks into the rabbit hole:

1. Stiglitz E. Joseph, Bilmes J. Linda, A $3 trillion war. The real cost of conflict in Iraq, Warsaw, PWN technological Publishing House, 2010.
2. Gabiś Tomasz, Iraq War Report Stan. Conservative Letter, No. 38/39, 2003.
   The study tells more fact about geopolitics than dozens of books written by popular Polish global experts today.
3. Mearsheimer J. John, Why politicians lie, Warsaw, technological Publishing home PWN, 2012.
   American political scientist, a postgraduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point on the lies of the Iraq War.
4. Mills Wright G., Power elite, Warsaw, Book and Knowledge, 1961.
   One of the most frequently cited American sociologists, in an interesting way introduces the American elite of power into the world. Elite including representatives of the military, politics and economy.
5. Raymond Jack, The Pentagon, Warsaw, Ministry of Defence Publishing House, 1966.
   "It is an effort to study on something that affects the lives of all of us – a huge, continuous military effort by the United States and the centre of their power at the Pentagon".
6. Jarecki Eugene, Why We Fight, 2005.
   A documentary on the military-industrial complex.
7. Steegmuller Barbara-Anne, Superpower, 2008.
   “For years the U.S. has been engaged in military conflicts without considering them as war. They usage armed forces all over the world, creating military bases in tens of countries – they are officially active... 737. There is no military base in the United States for any abroad country. The border between militarism and war-making has been blurred" a review of the movie in the diary „Rzeczpospolita”).

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