The high cost of getting even

On September 11, 2001 two landmarks building in New York was destroyed by Al-Qaeda extremists using U.S. civilian aircrafts. Thousands of innocent lives were lost in this accident. This brutal tragedy took place unexpectedly in a major city of the world superpower, the United States of America and was carried out by 19 non-militant Al-Qaeda men. It causes such serious damage that the Americans felt deeply saddened. It cames as a great surprise to the world!

The United States condemn 9/11 incident as an act of terrorist war crime, rather than individual activists. In retaliation, the U.S. dispatched 150,000 strong arms to attack and kill the so-called head of terrorist groups in Iraq and their leader, Mr. Saddam Hussein! It cost the United States nearly one trillion U.S. dollars in military spending, and thousands of soldier’s lives. Yet, it did not lead to a pro-American Iraqi government. The American people are still without a sense of security in Iraq resulting in lost of oil field development rights to others foreign companies!

Concurrent to the war in Iraq, the United States dispatched more than 30,000 troops to Afghan and provides generous awards to local Afghan in searching for Osama bin Laden aiming at eliminating al-Qaeda's activities. After eight years of tough war, the US was unable to achieve its original goal. The US could not even obtain reliable intelligence of Osama Bin Ladin hideout, let alone catching him. This is mainly due to the lack of support from the local people! Hundreds of billions on war spendings was wasted!

The US president Obama is a major advocate of withdrawal from Afghanistan, however, he ends up with no other choice but to faccept the reality of sending more troops to Afghanistan. The surge also comes with direct results of increased military spending. The U.S. government is estimated to have spent more than one million US dollar per year for every soldier stationed in Afghanistan. Base on a total of 100,000 troops, the future of the Afghanistan war will cost as high as 100 billion U.S. dollars per year.

No wonder the majority of heavyweight Democrats has issued a joint statement to the House of Representatives suggesting to levy a "war tax in Afghanistan". If implemented, I am afraid the American people will have to pay the war tax indefinitely without an end in the near future. It’s unconceivable that this could have happen to a world super-power!

When the war ended, the Afghan government may want to claim from the U.S. government for compensation on damages caused by the war against Al-Qaeda and Taliban. Therefore, the results of the war in Afghanistan are a double barrel lost of money and soldiers for the American. Nevertheless, Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda may be still there, the internal security threat to the United States is may still unresolved. These two retaliation war are "High Cost of Getting
Even” for the American. They should study China’s policy of "harmony" instead.

报复的代价太高了！

2001年9月11日纽约两座地标大厦被基地组织的极端份子利用美国民航机给撞毁了！同时夺去了几千个无辜的生命，这样突发的残酷惨事，竟然发生在这个世界超强国家的大都市，对美国来说，实在是奇耻大辱，基地组织只用了19个非军人的行动，就给美国造成了如此严重的伤害，令美国人感到极度的悲愤，也使全世界人民大吃一惊！
美国认定9.11事件本质是恐怖战争而不是个别犯罪份子的活动，为了报复，美国出动了15万大军，首先对所谓恐怖集团的大本营，把伊拉克和其领导人萨达姆干掉！但美国付出的代价是近万亿美元的军事开支，和几千条军人的性命，结果还换不来一个亲美国的伊拉克政府，美国人民在伊拉克仍没有安全感，以致美国石油公司对伊拉克油田的开发权裹足不前，全给外国公司拿去了！真是情何以堪！
在攻打伊拉克的同时美国出动了3万多军队和提供了丰厚的偿金给阿富汗当地官兵协助搜捕本拉登和消除基地组织的活动。但经历了8年的艰苦战争，仍无法实现最初的目标，不但捉不到本拉登，连他的藏身之处也没有可靠的情报，主要是输在民心！白费了几千亿美元的战争开支。
不断主张要从阿富汗撤军的奥巴马总统最近也只好面对现实决定对阿富汗增兵。但增兵的结果军事开支也将再相应增加，据说美国政府必须每年为每位驻阿士兵付出100万美元以上的战争费用，如果以10万军人计算，则未来的阿战费每年将高达1000亿美元以上。
难怪美国众议院多数重量级民主党议员已经发表联合声明，建议要为阿富汗战争向人民征收“阿富汗战争税”，如果真的实行，美国人民今后恐怕要不断缴纳战争税了！这样的事情不应该发生在一个世界超级强国的政策上。
阿富汗战争结束后，美国政府可能还要应对阿富汗政府的赔偿要求，因为美国对塔利班基地组织的战争，使阿富汗政府和人民造成严重的损失也应该为他们支付一笔合理的战后费用。因此，美国在阿富汗战争的结果可能是“赔了金钱又折兵”。本拉登捉不到，基地组织依然存在，对美国国内安全的威胁仍然没有清除，这两场报复的战争付出的代价太贵了！美国应该学中国的政策“以和为贵”。