The first wave of United States attacks against ISIS have begun and they are costing the military upwards near $ 1 billion. This is only the beginning also. The Center for strategic and budgetary assesment (CSBA) says that the cost may end up being $1.8 billion a month. This estimated cost will be the case if the Military presence grows to 25,000 ground troops. The attacks so far have been mostly airstrikes but the missiles used are very expensive. There are 1,600 troops in Iraq being used as support roles but are not conducting combat operations against ISIS yet. Obama has made a statement that he has no plans for U.S. ground troops to engage in combat.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/30/news/economy/isis-cost/index.html?iid=SF_E_River
The comments on that article are absurd.
ReplyDeleteAs far as it goes, though: Troops to fight ISIS are being put down primarily in Iraq an Syria, as far as I have read. Which is both amusing and bemusing. On one count, I wonder if we will ever leave the Middle East; on the other, at least from most media depictions it seems like we will always have some kind of a reason (economically, politically, or morally) to be there.
I know spending an upwards of 1.8 billion dollars a month sounds like a lot of money, I believe that if we can prevent ISIS from injuring US citizens it will all be worth it. Many people might look down on the spending of so much money on ISIS, but giving US citizens the peace of mind of being safe will be money well spent.
ReplyDeleteI entirely agree. It's a difficult situation because if we stay away from ISIS, we are essentially enabling them to keep doing what they're doing. If we join the fight, we are spending large amounts of money and risking American lives. I think this was the best choice the U.S. could have made considering their situation because ISIS needs to be dealt with and this way, minimal Americans are physically involved. It is unfortunate they are so expensive but this is probably why our defense spending is so high so it probably wouldn't even make a difference in the specific statistics. Hopefully the strikes make a difference and if they don't, hopefully we stop them so money isn't spent needlessly.
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