US Airstrikes on Syria Cost Taxpayers Over 119 Million Dollars - Huge Payout for the War Profiteers Raytheon & Lockheed Martin
In my last few posts, I have been focusing on the overwhelming hypocrisy and deception behind the recent US airstrikes against Syria, and will continue to do so in the near future, but in this post I am going to take a brief moment to focus on the immense financial cost of war to the American People, versus the few greedy war profiteers who rake in enormous profits each time the US carries out an airstrike such as this.
In this society based upon materialism and fueled by greed, sadly most people seem to care more about the financial implications of US policies, rather than the moral ones - as is evidenced by the trend of voters to view the economy as the biggest campaign issue at election time, rather than foreign policy, human rights or the plight of the poor. Hopefully, with the timing of these airstrikes and the recent push for war with Syria being right around Tax Day, the insane cost of war to the average American Taxpayer will start to get the attention of the masses, and cause many to re-think their support of US intervention and endless war in the Middle East!
CNBC on Monday reported that US forces fired 66 Tomahawk cruise missiles costing $92.4 million, as well as 19 JASSM-ER missiles costing $26.6 million, for a total cost in missiles alone coming to $119 million. That doesn't even include the enormous cost of fuel to run the naval vessels and all the aircraft that were used in this military operation, however CNBC did write this:
"In addition, the U.S. Air Force deployed a pair of B-1B Lancers, one of the world's most technologically advanced strategic bombers. The aircraft is believed to have an operating cost of approximately $95,000 per flight hour. It is unclear how long the Lancers flew and from where they were deployed.
The Pentagon and U.S. Air Force did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for clarity on the extent of the B-1B's role."
The cost to simply finance the US Military Industrial Complex each day is insane, and the price only skyrockets from there anytime the military carries out actual operations such as the recent airstrikes on Syria. For those citizens overly concerned with the economy and their finances, one of the biggest financial drains on the US economy is in fact the funding of the military, not to mention their absolutely ridiculous fuel consumption on a daily basis, which environmentalists across the country seem to conveniently ignore while bashing those citizens who drive gas-guzzling trucks.
As far as the cost of this strike, the 66 Tomahawk missiles which were fired cost the US $1.4 million each, and are manufactured by Raytheon, an increase from the 58 Tomahawks used in last April's airstrike on Syria. After last year's strike, Raytheon stock immediately soared by $1 billion, and the company makes a killing any time their Tomahawks are used in war by the US. This time, Lockheed Martin will also be getting a nice chunk of the profits from these airstrikes, with their Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles Extended Range, or JASSM-ER, making its combat debut in the 2018 Syrian strikes, with 19 launched at an estimated cost of $1.4 million each, just like the Tomahawks.
We may never know the total financial costs of these strikes, but what we do know is that the US spent $119 million dollars, which went straight to Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, all based on a LIE.
$119 million sure is a lot of money to just piss away in an hour, considering doing so was also an international war crime, and especially considering just how big a number of Americans are simply struggling to make ends meet - with many living paycheck to paycheck, while many others are homeless or even going hungry. When the media pushes the war propaganda on their audiences in an attempt to convince the average American to support war against Syria, they fail to emphasize the insane financial cost of war which comes straight out of the taxpayer's pocket. And in almost every case, that taxpayer doesn't profit in any way at all, while war profiteers like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin rake in the dough.
War is a racket, but worse than that, war is a racket funded at the expense of the taxpayer, to satisfy the greed of the few who make a killing (literally & figuratively). War is a racket funded by the American taxpayers, many of whom do not even support the war in any way, but their taxes fund and support it anyway, paying for someone else's war crimes so Raytheon and Lockheed Martin can make millions in a day. War is a racket, but until the Americans who oppose the war stop funding the war with their taxes, the war will surely continue.
As long as there is profit to be had from war, there will be war profiteers, and as long as war profiteering remains legal, war will surely continue. Striking Syria had NOTHING to do with stopping Assad's alleged chemical weapons capabilities, and everything to do with GREED & PROFIT. War is the only racket in which the profits are reckoned in dollars, and the losses in lives.