14 March 2015

By Al-Ikhwah Al-Mujahidun

In 18th century, Thomas Cane an eminent English writer, who was famous for his sound predictions in the west, had said once about America, 'The mighty will endure until it has not committed the mistake to suck the blood of a weak.'

If we peer into the history, one can say that the decline of non-Muslim super powers began when they girded up their loin for cruelty and tyranny. An interestingly common phenomenon is that most of these tyrant powers were defeated by the weakest nations of the history. The examples are in abundance in the earlier and Middle Ages of Islamic history in which numerous big powers of the world were defeated.

It seems that the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and successive attacks on weak Muslim masses far and wide is drawing America and her western allies towards their natural decline as every tide hath a fall. Americans are proud of their military force and abundance of resources which make them the sole super power of the world. The inference is that if these two assets are damaged or demolished, naturally she (America) can be and will be defeated.

In the following lines those casualties and losses are estimated and evaluated which are suffered by the American invaders both in Afghanistan and Iraq and which are confirmed by the American independent sources as well.

In October 2001, America launched her invasion of Afghanistan while enjoying the support of several other powerful countries. They were well-equipped with modern weaponry. They were financially well-off and their military forces were fully trained. On the basis of these factors, in the beginning, they had made up their mind that this war will end in a shortest possible time and their losses will be limited. At that time, even the western analysts had the opinion that if the war is prolonged, it will inevitably result in an embarrassing defeat for America as their casualties and financial losses will escalate to a back-breaking level. The present scenario shows that their previous estimations were totally wrong as the war has been prolonged contrary to their anticipations which resulted in innumerable casualties and immeasurable financial losses for them.

There are two different types of statistics available regarding the corporeal and financial losses of America; the one which is officially released by the American military and other state organs and the other is published by those American civic societies which were against these wars for various sound reasons. Their statistics and calculations are totally different than those released by the army or state officials.

For example, the total number of American soldiers who were killed inside Afghanistan and Iraq is 7698 persons according to the Pentagon but a private organ comprising of retired military personnel say that the total number of their soldiers killed is 72600. Similarly, according to Pentagon the number of wounded soldiers is 41030 but a private organ called 'Anti-War' (having a website with this title) counts the number of wounded soldiers as 100,000. According to the above mentioned organ of retired army personnel, the number of wounded soldiers is much higher than this and reaches to around 600,000. Their argument is that according to the American military law, the expenditures on wounded soldiers who are brought back to America for treatment is separated from the budget allocated for the retired soldiers. On this basis, they say that 600,000 soldiers have received medical treatment inside America only, not counting soldiers who were treated inside the battle field or shifted to the hospitals build for this purpose inside Afghanistan.

The American Congress has assigned an organ for the co-ordination of financial costs to examine the military and civilian expenditures. It is said that this organ is very precise and careful in its assigned duty to the extent that it records and compares the revenue and expenditures of the American government and the whole nation on the hourly basis. For example this organ says that from 2001 onward the American government has been spending $10.54 million per hour in which 80% is spent on wars. This entire amount is balanced from the taxes and custom duties which are paid by the American nation to the government. It means that for the last fourteen years the American government has been spending $10.54 million per hour from those taxes and custom duties paid by their people. If this amount is added and multiplied, it might be one of the highest and back breaking costs of war in the human history.

The financial research institute of congress says that from 11th September 2001 till 2010, $ 3.291 trillion are allocated to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This amount was confirmed by a French newspaper 'Le Figaro' too. On 10th April 2008, this newspaper published the summery of a book under the title of 'The true losses of war' in which all the above mentioned digits and sources are considered authentic.

Abdul Munim, the head of research section of the 'Al-Arab News' writes that on the basis of those statistics and sources which are received from various American organizations, 600,000 items of military hardware is completely destroyed till now inside Afghanistan and Iraq and more than one million of their soldiers are either killed, wounded, crippled or suffering from psychological disorders.

The weekly 'Al-Kifah' published a detailed report quoting 'James Mick Gifforn' that America has lost $246 million on the daily basis in the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. This report added that the death toll of American soldiers, diplomats, their civilian contractors and workers etc. has reached more than 10,000 persons. This report was published in 2007. It means that in the following years, the amount of losses and casualties can be estimated to have doubled.

According to the Central American bank, the amount of loan demanded by the American government from the total amount of national budget was $16 billion before the wars which has now increased to $ 1700 billion. In this way it has caused a deficit of $ 2.65 billion to the national budget. From 2008 onward, the salaries of seven million retired officials have either been blocked or not paid. It is said that America is printing currency notes worth of $85 billion on the monthly basis which can inevitably undermine their economy. In the near future, America has to pay the following amounts of debts:

Japan = $ 586 billion

China = $ 400 billion

Britain = $ 244 billion

Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries = $ 124 billion

A survey conducted by twenty top level American analysts says that on one hand the exact number of American soldiers and civilians killed in these futile wars is still ambiguous as they do not trust the numbers provided by Pentagon while on the other hand, America has lost trillions of dollars. A member of this group, senator Bob Corker, a republican congressman, says that nineteen 'Al-Qaida' members carried out the 9/11 attacks by spending nearly 400 or 500 thousand dollars and killed 3000 plus people. They might have caused a financial loss of 700 to 1000 billion dollars. But after that, when the war was waged against Al-Qaida inside Afghanistan and Iraq, we have suffered financial losses and casualties four times than we had on 9/11.

Another American institute describes the statistics of the American financial losses in the shape of the following tables which depict the huge amount of money of the American ordinary tax payers and then spent by the government in these futile wars.

To summarize in the wake of this illegal and immoral invasion, in addition to 3000 dead and over $10,000 billion of financial losses, America has achieved the following: