The UK has been involved in continuous bloody slaughter in the
Middle East for approximately 16 years. In that time we have seen
several countries returned to the stone age, millions of ordinary
people displaced and millions maimed and killed. Afghanistan, now a
never ending battle scene, Iraq, a bloody tribal battle ground,
Libya, a lawless land of killing and plunder, Syria, a land soaked in
blood and misery, and still it goes on.
Is there anybody out
there naive enough to honestly believe that the UK, USA and the
Western military cabal, indulged themselves in this quagmire of blood
and slaughter, for the benefit of the people of those countries?
Sixteen years of "bringing democracy" to the people of
these countries has resulted in a vast swath of the planet where
people live in constant fear, in poverty and ever present death. When
will it end?
One of the main beneficiaries of this savage
display of Western imperialism has been the arms industry. High-tec
missiles and other weaponry come with a hefty price tag, all paid for
by you and I, tax payers money, we are complicit.
A little drop in the cost of the ocean of obscenity of missile slaughter would be the number of UK bombs and
missiles dropped in Syria and Iraq From 1 January - 9 April 2017:
129 Paveway IV bombs, £22,000 each
37 Hellfire missiles, £80,000 each
20 Brimstone missiles, £105,000 each
30 Unspecified / other, Ministry of Defence, cost unknown.
Of course missiles do not go off on missions by themselves, there is a whole world of very expensive backup and delivery processes, again, all paid for courtesy of the UK cash strapped, austerity riven tax payer.
According to a Ministry of Defence report to Parliament in 2010, each Tornado flight costs £35,000 per hour. Typically, two Tornados fly each mission, lasting anywhere between four and eight hours.
So let's land somewhere in the middle: a six-hour mission costs a basic £210,000.
Then we have to consider the cost of the missiles. The expected payload would be four Paveway bombs, £22,000 each, and two Brimstone missiles, £105,000 per unit.
So let's say that's £508,000 per aircraft in total, just a smidgen over £1m per mission.
If they carry Storm Shadows at £800,000 a pop, then the cost rises considerably
The UK parliament
backed British participation in air strikes against IS in Iraq back in September 2014. Just over a year later in 2015, MPs
authorised air strikes against IS in Syria.The UK has conducted more than 1,200 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since it became involved - more than any other coalition country bar the United States. In 2016 alone, the US dropped 12,192 bombs in Syria and 12,095 in Iraq, according to the American think tank Council on Foreign Relations.
This money, robbed from the public purse, for our 16 years of "bringing democracy" to the Middle East is responsible for killing and maiming bus drivers, teachers, surgeons, office workers, factory workers, elderly and children, it is responsible for the destruction of hospitals, factories, homes and offices. It is responsible for creating a generation of displaced and traumatised people across a large slice of the planet. Apart from the countries being pulverised by missiles, the damage is also here at home. All that money, time and resources employed in destruction could be deployed at home improving the social fabric of our country. This is all part and parcel of capitalism as one set of power mongers fight to gain control of natural resources and markets from from another set of power mongers. It will only end we we call a halt to the insanity of the capitalism system of greed and exploitation. Capitalism cannot be reformed, it destruction is the only answer.
