279) The cost of feeding the dogs of war (and the utter imbecility of the decision-makers behind it)

From what I've read, every "bunker buster bomb" costs $20 MILLION (some estimates are as high as $500 million). Each B-2 stealth bomber costs $2.2 BILLION. Seven of these bombers, along with about 120 other aircraft, were involved in this attack on Iran, dropping 12-14 bombs (depending on sources; some say as "few" as 6, but the point remains the same, just the dollar values need to be adjusted...).

Submarines, aircraft carriers, battleships, etc., were also deployed to strategic locations. One aircraft carrier costs $6 MILLION or more, PER DAY, to operate.

Israel's air-attacks on Iran are costing about $200 MILLION PER DAY, with higher estimates of $750 MILLION, per day.

Then there are the personnel involved. The satellites. The troop movements. The security analysts. Etc.etc.etc.etc.etc.

So let's just say that the attacks cost, oh I don't know -- $10 billion. Surely that's an underestimation, especially if you factor in the production of all this equipment, military staffing, research and development, etc. $10 billion is probably quite low. But who knows? Maybe it's "only" 5 billion. Maybe it's 20 billion. It doesn't matter; the point is the same.

To put this in perspective, just imagine that you wanted to personally fund a $10 billion attack, and you make, say, $80,000 per year. You would have needed to start working ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND YEARS AGO, about 60,000 years BEFORE stone-tool-using Homo sapiens were interbreeding with Neanderthals, and you would have had to save every single penny.

If you wanted to fund Israel's attacks on Iran, FOR ONE DAY, you would have needed to start saving all your income, 350 years before Jesus was born. And you could fund Israel's air-war for one single day.

That's a glimpse into how expensive war is. Just the economics of it, let alone the incalculable cost in human suffering and death.

But the USA cannot afford food stamps programs for the poor. Or health care for their citizens. Or children's cancer research. They cut firefighter budgets. Food safety inspections. They cut services for their own veterans who went to war for them in the past. They cancel disaster preparedness for hurricane and forest fires. They cut public health budgets. Infectious disease budgets. And yes, let's say it again -- children's cancer research. (But their private security contractors, their prison contractors, their weapons contractors, make hundreds of billions of dollars....)

But it was strategically necessary, right? Iran cannot have nukes, just like Poilievre says!

These attacks were launched by a President whose own Intelligence Director (Tulsi Gabbard), told him Iran was not building nor anywhere near to building nukes. Trump decided she, and the entire intelligence community, were wrong.

This decision to disagree with the intelligence community was based on...nothing. Except whatever mysterious crap floats through Trump's brain. It wasn't based on intelligence, because, as is now well known, Trump doesn't listen to or read intelligence reports.

Tulsi Gabbard has been trying to get Trump to listen to intelligence reports for months. But he simply won't. He doesn't read (not that he can't -- he won't). He won't sit through a presentation. Gabbard even considered getting FOX-news-style programs made out of intelligence reports, because he might actually watch those. So...yeah, the President of the United States does not listen to information, even from his own experts (or figureheads like Gabbard who are cosplaying being an expert), because they simply cannot get him to pay attention long enough. And EVEN IF he does, he ignores them unless they agree with his own based-on-nothing beliefs.

About 2 dozen of his chief "advisors" worked for FOX News less than one year ago and have ZERO experience or expertise in the jobs they now perform and the portfolios they now oversee.

Let that sink in. It would be like firing your heart surgeon, hiring your auto mechanic to operate on your heart, and instead of that mechanic at least reading some medical textbooks first, they listen to a bunch of people who used to work for McDonald's and Taco Bell until a few months ago and have zero medical training. And don't get me wrong, auto mechanics are very capable people. They have lots of experience in fixing cars. I have lifelong friends who are auto mechanics. But I wouldn't let them operate on my heart....

The USA must not be considered our ally anymore. They are not part of the democratic order. They are a rogue, hostile, warmongering nation that is committing international war crimes and, through Israel, a genocide.

And we, their closest neighbour and inhabitants of their most-desired-land, should be very clear-eyed about this. The USA is literally an enemy nation. Like it or not, whether you have American friends or not, at a nation-level, they are an enemy nation. And we should treat them that way.

To Mark Carney, a plea

Mark Carney must be pressured to take a stronger stance, a much stronger stance, against the United States, in conjunction with allies. Granted, there is probably a middle ground, like cooperating with Blue states and cities that are resisting Trump. This is a tough needle to thread, but I hold that out as at least a possibility.

War and terrorism are pretty much guaranteed to escalate now. And on top of the sheer moral horror and strategic stupidity of the USA's actions, Canada will not be safe if we continue to be their ally on the international stage. We must distance from that country. We simply must.

Mark Carney has taken steps in this direction, and I applaud him for that. He has declared that our international friendship is over. He has expertly handled Trump at the G7 meeting. (Or G6, depending how you look at it). He is pursuing a diversification of trade partners, and is deepening our military and strategic ties with Europe. All of these things are existentially necessary. And on this track, he must not slack off. While Trump is at the helm, while the Republican Party has any power at all, while MAGA is a political force, Canada must make it internationally as obvious as possible -- we are not the USA's ally.

Our own security depends on it. Our own safety depends on it. And our own moral credibility, already shaky after decades of supporting Israel's imprisonment, torture, and abuse of Palestinians, and after our banking and mining industries' horrendous abuse of Indigenous people worldwide, depends on it.

The USA (particularly while Trump and the Republicans are in charge and MAGA thrives), is not our friend. And not our ally.