<story><title>How we paid for the War on Terror</title><url>https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-34-how-we-paid-for-the</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>failrate</author><text>Yes, the fed issues currency by fiat, but the actual resources consumed by this war probably account for the monetary price tag.  Additionally, the money spent did not vanish in a puff of smoke at the end of a gun: it lined the war chests of the military industrial complex.  This gives these people and organizations outsized influence to manipulate our government into staying in wars in order to justify buying expensive munitions.  This destructive feedback loop is the true cost of war.</text></comment>
<story><title>How we paid for the War on Terror</title><url>https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-34-how-we-paid-for-the</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>keewee7</author><text>Why is American warfare so expensive?&lt;p&gt;Russian, French and Turkish interventionism in the Middle East and Africa are an order of magnitude smaller but they seem to have accomplished more than the US&amp;#x2F;NATO did in Afghanistan.&lt;p&gt;The Iraq war is a complicated beast. The Iraqis I know feel the country improved for the better but US foreign policy on Israel-Palestine and warmongering against Iran (most Iraqis are Shia) has eroded whatever goodwill they had after the fall of Saddam.</text></comment>