NPP notes that the human costs of the Iraq War have been enormous, and the costs on the home-front in the USA will continue for decades—leading to simultaneous deflation (and marked by spurts of inflation) and recession that America knew so well in the 1970s, i.e. after the Vietnam War-era spending spree.
Recall that following the horrible economy dislocations of the 1970s, America was brought Reaganomics—the first strong sign that Keynesians were kicked out and a quasi-fascist Chicago School ideology had taken over America. It is this ideology which Naomi Klein calls “The Shock Doctrine”.
Meanwhile, since 2003, there are 100s of thousands of Iraqis dead . There are also currently 2 million internal refugees in Iraq.As well, there are 2 million refugees—including those injured and maimed—from the Iraq War in other (primarily) neighboring countries.
In the USA, 100s of thousands of family’s (primarily those with family members serving in Iraq or in the military) have lost jobs, incomes, and even homes due to dislocations caused by the militarized economy since 2001.
The mobilizations of National Guard forces are just one facet of this large displacement. Moreover, the entire defense establishment is still short on qualified personnel in many locations—just as the federal government’s foreign affairs offices are short manpower—largely due to the lack good foreign policy, defense, labor, and economic policy leadership in the Land.
Likewise towns, local economies, and regions around military bases—from in Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri to Lackland AF Base in Texas (or from Ft. Riley in Kansas to other bases at the ends of the I-70 & I-35 corridor states) have been damaged, hampered or severely deformed by the extended absence of local peoples and base personnel.
All of this is done in the name of either the War on Terror or supposedly in the name of winning a wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, or Palestine/Levant.
Besides carrying 1/7th of the budgetary load deficit for the Iraq War these five states--Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Texas--being focused on in this paper have carried very specific human cost burdens:
Human Cost (deaths) State Human Cost (wounded)130+ Illinois 1,011+
40+ Kansas 344+
58+ Oklahoma 448+
64+ Missouri 634+
331+ Texas 2,582+
___________ __________
623+ Total for these 5 states 4,519+These 5 states have been suffering 1/6th of the nation’s total official military deaths in Iraq. They also suffer 1/6th of the total official military wounded.
On the one hand, this all may come as no surprise because 1/6th of the U.S. official population lives in these states (or are official American residents of these states).
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