Obama aumenta los gastos militares y reduce servicios, extendiendo la presencia militar hasta el 2014

Las Madres contra la Guerra denunciamos la decisión del presidente Barack Obama de aumentar el gasto militar este año ,siendo el gasto militar más grande desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Denunciamos que se posponga el regreso de las tropas y que se mantenga la presencia de EU en Afganistán hasta el 2014 (es lo que dicen hoy, pero es como la guerra " de nunca acabar"). El que decide este curso es Don Dinero: los inversores del Gran Capital , por los ricos yacimientos mineros y el gas natural en Afganistán. Mientras tanto, se congelan los pagos del Seguro Social a los envejecidos e incapacitados y los gastos en educación, y salud. Veamos este análisis:
Friday 19 November 2010
New Afghan War Plans Could Cost US Taxpayers an Extra $125 Billion by: Ben Arnoldy
The Christian Science Monitor Report
As leaders at the NATO summit in Lisbon meet this weekend to discuss strategy in US war planners have been signaling that troop withdrawals set to begin in 2011 will be mostly symbolic and that the handover to Afghan forces in 2014 is "aspirational."Such could cost American taxpayers handsomely at a time when deficit cutting has gripped Washington . According to one estimate, softening those deadlines could add at least $125 billion in war spending – not including long-term costs like debt servicing and health care for veterans.
"I don't think anyone is seriously talking about cutting war funding as a way of handling the deficit," says Todd Harrison, a defense funding expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. But higher war costs "could hurt the base defense budget [and] the rest of the discretionary budget."A Shift in US Deadlines
Currently there are some 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan , which includes the 30,000 troop surge announced by President Obama in December 2009. At that time, the president also said the US would "begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011."Such was interpreted by many Americans and Afghans to be a significant withdrawal in 2011. In recent months, with the situation in Afghanistan showing few signs of stabilizing, US officials have focused more on 2014 as the date for withdrawal.
Speaking at the NATO summit in Lisbon, Mr. Obama described the timeline as "a transition to Afghan responsibility beginning in 2011 with Afghan forces taking the lead for security across Afghanistan by 2014.
But the Pentagon on Thursday said the goal of handing over security duties to the Afghans in 2014 was "aspirational."Although the hope is, the goal is, to have Afghan security forces in the lead over the preponderance of the country by then, it does not necessarily mean that ... everywhere in the country they will necessarily be in the lead," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.
Crunching the Numbers
So how much extra would it cost if the bulk of the withdrawal starts rather than finishes around 2014? About $125 billion, says Mr. Harrison at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, at that's just through 2014. He uses two different troop level scenarios – one high, and one low. He calculates costs based $1.1 million per soldier per year, which reflects the five-year average in Afghanistan .
The lower cost – $288 billion – assumes that the troops involved in Obama's surge would be withdrawn by 2012, and that by the end of 2014 only 30,000 US troops would remain. The higher cost – $413 billion – assumes no drawdown will happen until 2013, and 70,000 US troops would remain by the end of 2014. The difference: $125 billion.
Another defense analyst, Anthony Cordesman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has a slightly higher estimate at $441 billion. That jumps to $476.5 billion by including State Department expenses and immediate medical costs for veterans.