US Spent $21T on 25 Years of Post-9/11 Wars — SkimNews
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- Defense Secretary Rumsfeld convened a Pentagon meeting at 2:40 pm on 9/11, within hours of the attacks, ordering subordinates to also hit Saddam Hussein "at the same time" as bin Laden and to "Go massive. Sweep it all up," according to notes obtained by CBS News.
- Condoleezza Rice cancelled the State Department's 2004 Patterns of Global Terrorism report, which had shown an unprecedented increase in global terrorism following the Iraq invasion, and replaced it with differently-criteria'd reporting to prevent year-over-year comparison.
- US military spending over the past 25 years has exceeded $21 trillion in 2024 dollars, surpassing the combined spending of the other 18 largest military powers, the authors report.
- China used the same 25-year period to build new infrastructure and leapfrog the US economy in clean energy, high-speed rail, and technology sectors where America was once preeminent.
- The authors frame Trump's war on Iran as the latest chapter in the post-9/11 conflict cycle, citing widespread public opposition as evidence that most Americans have "finally learned" war is not the answer.
- NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is held up as pursuing an alternative agenda, including free childcare expansion, major affordable housing investment, public transit improvements, and rent freezes for rent-stabilized tenants.
- The authors specifically call for abolishing ICE, closing overseas bases, bringing troops home, taxing the wealthy, and taking public ownership of education, healthcare, housing, infrastructure, and utilities.
Why it matters: The $21 trillion military spending figure provides a concrete benchmark for what America traded away in 25 years of war — China leapfrogged the US in clean energy, rail, and tech during the same period. The piece makes a causal argument that public opposition to the Iran war signals a tipping point in domestic attitudes, though whether Mamdani-style policy alternatives can scale nationally remains untested.
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