March 28, 2018
Page 13
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O PINION
15 Years After the Iraq War, What Are the Costs?
Adding up the
numbers and
human toll
s tephanie s avell
This March marked
the 15th anniversary of
the U.S.-led invasion
of Iraq.
In 2003, President
George W. Bush and
his advisers based
their case for war on the idea that
Saddam Hussein, then dictator of
Iraq, possessed weapons of mass
destruction — weapons that have
never been found. Nevertheless,
all these years later, Bush’s “Glob-
al War on Terror” continues — in
Iraq and in many other countries.
It’s a good time to reflect on
what this war — the longest in
U.S. history — has cost Ameri-
cans and others around the world.
First, the economic costs: Ac-
by
cording to estimates by the Costs
of War project at Brown Univer-
sity’s Watson Institute for Inter-
national and Public Affairs, the
war on terror has cost
Americans a stagger-
ing $5.6 trillion since
2001, when the U.S.
invaded Afghanistan.
This figure includes
not just the Pentagon’s
war fund, but also fu-
ture obligations such
as social services for
an ever-growing number of post-
9/11 veterans.
It’s hard for most of us to even
begin to grasp such an enormous
number.
It means Americans spend $32
million per hour, according to a
counter by the National Priorities
Project at the Institute for Policy
Studies.
Put another way: Since 2001,
every American taxpayer has
spent almost $24,000 on the wars
— equal to the average down pay-
ment on a house, a new Honda
Accord, or a year at a public uni-
versity.
As stupefying as those numbers
are, the budgetary costs pale in
comparison with the human toll.
As of 2015, when the Costs of
War project made its latest tallies,
up to 165,000 Iraqi civilians had
died as a direct consequence of
U.S. war, plus around 8,000 U.S.
soldiers and military contractors
in Iraq.
Those numbers have only con-
tinued to rise. Up to 6,000 civilians
were killed by U.S.-led strikes in
Iraq and Syria in 2017 –– more ci-
vilians than in any previous year,
according to the watchdog group
AirWars.
In addition to those direct
deaths, at least four times as many
people in Iraq have died from the
side effects of war, such as mal-
nutrition, environmental degrada-
tion, and deteriorated infrastruc-
ture.
Since the 2003 invasion, for
instance, Iraqi health care has
plummeted — with hospitals and
clinics bombed, supplies of med-
icine and electricity jeopardized,
and thousands of physicians and
healthcare workers fleeing the
country.
Meanwhile, the war continues
to spread, no longer limited to Af-
ghanistan, Iraq, or Syria, as many
Americans think. Indeed, the U.S.
military is escalating a shadowy
network of anti-terror operations
all across the world — in at least
76 nations, or 40 percent of coun-
tries on the planet.
Last October, news about four
Green Berets killed by an Islamic
State affiliate in the West African
nation of Niger gave Americans a
glimpse of just how broad this net-
work is. And along with it comes
all the devastating consequences
of militarism for the people of
these countries.
We must ask: Are these as-
tounding costs worth it? Is the
U.S. accomplishing anything
close to its goal of diminishing the
global terrorist threat?
The answer is, resoundingly,
no.
U.S. activity in Iraq and the
Middle East has only spurred
greater political upheaval and un-
rest. The U.S.-led coalition is seen
not as a liberating force, but as an
aggressor. This has fomented in-
surgent recruitment, and there are
now more terrorist groups in the
Middle East than ever before.
Until a broad swath of the
American public gets engaged to
call for an end to the war on terror,
these mushrooming costs — eco-
nomic, human, social, and politi-
cal — will just continue to grow.
Stephanie Savell co-directs the
Costs of War project at Brown
University’s Watson Institute for
International and Public Affairs.
Distributed by OtherWords.org.
A Community Conversation about Menthol Cigarettes
the legal age to buy tobacco to 21
years old, rules which have been
in effect since the New Year.
Now we are talking about re-
strictions on menthol flavored
tobacco – the product of choice
among many African Americans,
by d e ’s haWn h ardy
The Highland African Ameri- youth and underserved communi-
can Youth Community Coalition ties.
Mona MacDonald, Highland
and Multnomah County have been
“talkin’ tobacco” for a few years.
In June 2015, youth and adults
came together for a day-long to-
bacco prevention training session
called “Becoming a Power Play-
er.” The group learned about the
predatory marketing of tobacco in
African American communities
and what the policy-making pro-
cess looks like. Youth learned to
develop their own messages and
tried them out on staff from the
Multnomah County Commission.
The Highland coalition has
been active in protecting our
youth from easy access to tobacco
by supporting licensing at retailers
of tobacco products and raising
Coalition looks
at negative
impacts
Haven REACH (Racial and Eth-
nic Approaches to Community
Health) program coordinator, in
collaboration with Multnomah
County REACH staff, are deliver-
ing powerful presentations about
the harms of menthol cigarettes
When a room full of youth
were recently asked ‘does any-
one smoke or know someone who
who smoke in Multnomah County
die from smoking related diseases,
infant mortality, colorectal cancer,
lung cancer, stroke, diabetes, cor-
onary heart disease and all can-
cers, at a higher rate than all other
smokers.
Despite the myths about the
safety of menthol vs. regular cig-
arettes, there is no medical value
For the overwhelming majority of African Americans
and youth who smoke, menthol is their product of
choice. Nationally, 95 percent of black smokers use
menthol cigarettes! African Americans who smoke in
Multnomah County die from smoking related diseases,
infant mortality, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, stroke,
diabetes, coronary heart disease and all cancers, at a
higher rate than all other smokers.
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smokes menthols’ all hands went
up.
“We know this is an important
topic to talk about, but it’s a hard
discussion to have,” MacDonald
says.
For the overwhelming majority
of African Americans and youth
who smoke, menthol is their prod-
uct of choice. Nationally, 95 per-
cent of black smokers use menthol
cigarettes! African Americans
or health benefit of using menthol
cigarettes. Rather, the product is
actually more harmful, because
the menthol flavoring (which is
the one flavor that is still legal
for cigarette products) results in
people taking a deeper draw with
each inhalation of the cigarette.
This means more of the cigarette’s
toxic chemicals find their way into
the lungs and bloodstream of the
smoker, meaning more sickness
and death from smoking-related
illnesses.
Menthol is more, not less ad-
dictive, than regular cigarettes
as well. Menthol increases the
amount of nicotine in the blood,
making cigarettes more addic-
tive and harder to quit. Research
has found that people who smoke
menthols have a harder time quit-
ting smoking, especially African
American women. But people are
not generally aware of this when
they take up the habit, often think-
ing they can quit whenever they
decide.
For all these reasons, cities
throughout the country are ban-
ning the sale of menthol ciga-
rettes (San Francisco, Oakland,
Sonoma, Chicago, New York and
Berkeley). Several other coun-
tries already have prohibited the
sale of menthol cigarettes as well.
Highland Haven REACH pro-
gram, in partnership with Mult-
nomah County Health Depart-
ment, is available to come and
share with your organization or
youth group information about
menthol and to hear your ideas
about what we can do about it.
If you are interested, please
email Sandra Meucci at andra.
meucci@multco.us. Let’s keep
“talkin’ tobacco” and figure out
how we can help our community!
De’Shawn Hardy is a coordi-
nator with the Highland African
American Youth Community Coa-
lition.