Cost of Iraq war will surpass Vietnam by year's end If Congress approves a request for another $87 billion, the Iraq war will have cost about $694 billion. The Vietnam war cost $686 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars; World War II cost $4 trillion. "Reporting from Washington â The amount of U.S. money spent on the Iraq war will surpass the cost of Vietnam by the end of the year, making it the second most expensive military conflict in American history, behind World War II, according to Pentagon figures provided Friday. If Congress approves the supplemental funding request submitted this week by the Obama administration, it will add $87 billion to the cost of the war for 2009. Added to the amount spent through 2008, it would mean the Iraq war will have cost taxpayers a total of about $694 billion. By comparison, the Vietnam war cost $686 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars and World War II cost $4 trillion, according to a Congressional Research Service study completed last year." http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/11/nation/na-iraq-vietnam11
No need to. We spend more on our military than the next ten major countries combined. How much have we spent on keeping troops abroad since WWII? What is our "foreign aid" to our client states such as Egypt, Turkey and Israel? Add it all up. 'nuf said. Regarding the US being an Agrarian Society. True, but you also had family farms spread thru-out the country. During the great depression 25% of the population was in agriculture. Today it is 2-3%. Can we return to an agrarian society? Sure, but I don't see it as a welcome or seamless transition for most. We agree on urban sprawl and the auto. I don't see why you call what I said bullshit? Trucking is still important - I don't see trains stopping behind restaurants and supermarkets. Nonetheless, rail runs on hydrocarbons as well. Should Oil peak, all hydrocarbons become expensive due to shifting demand. Your train emphasis point is moot. As for peak oil - I used to think it was a crock. I have studied energy - including biomass/biofuels, wind, solar, coal, NG, LNG, for hundreds of hours. I have looked at charts from the IEA and the DOE.... Charts don't lie. All oil wells peak, most oil producing countries have already peaked. I'm afraid Peak Oil is real. A few huge oil finds would quickly put off the peak date, but the huge oil discoveries in the late sixties have yet to be replicated. Energy returned on Energy invested (EROEI) is one of the most important concepts of modern civilization that 99.9% of the population knows nothing about.
................................................ 1000% Correct Gratis the BUSH POLY CONS.... ............................................... The most basic of all logic is that: 1) Sustainable income means.... must be a part of fundamental change.... 2) This means a dramatic downsizing in govt.....Govt. has to be backed out of all prices....This means tax structure change.... In this respect both the Bush/Obam Poly Cons have shown their total lack of understanding as to what is really needed.... Both Poly Con Crops will have the legacy of bringing the US down.... Someone else is going to have to grab and instate the opportunity for required fundamental changes....The current Poly Con Crop is an American FINANCIAL DISASTER....
Comparing notional values is meaningless unless you normalize them from the perspective of how much you can afford to spend. From that perspective the U.S. does not spend that much on it's military. Painful is nowhere near impossible. Hardly. Remove oil from the equation and the population reforms around railroad stations, the same way it used to be before the introduction of the auto. And, rail does not need hydrocarbons. If things were to play out as you said there's a whole lot of stored energy in weapons that could be transitioned to nuclear reactors for an all electric rail system. Study all you want. The pace of technological process is such that I've got a lot of faith that new technologies will either extend the useful life of what we have left through better utilization or create new methods of production that will create more net fuel than existing extraction and refinement methods. And, that completely excludes a disruptive breakthrough in solar and storage cells. A doubling in both the efficiency of solar cells and capacity of batteries would bring us near a tipping point.
I can see World War III. What will you do if you have AK-47 rifle in your hands but you do not have money to buy food?. Understandably you will rob a bank. Similarly, USA has the most powerful army and weapons and now USA is bankrupt with $82 Trillions of debt on and off the books. Now if the US dollar is destroyed what will USA do?.
All you have to do is follow the history of Great Britain. They used to occupy and control 1/2 of the world, much the way the US does now. The Romans were the same. The US is following the same course as these Economic and Military Giants. We are on a slow decline. The dollar is not going to collapse but it will grind down slowly. You won't recognize this country in 50 years, or maybe even 20.