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Sunday, August 22, 2021

In 500 years, the US would still not give as much aid to Israel as it wasted on Afghanistan in 20 years



You know how Israel haters pretend to care about US taxpayer dollars going to Israel?

The US gives about $3.5 billion to Israel every year, nearly all of it earmarked to be spent on US weapons anyway. The money also goes towards joint US/Israel missile defense system development and other technologies that help the US defend itself.

According to various media, the US spent over $2 trillion in Afghanistan and Pakistan over the past 20 years. 

That means that it spent more every two weeks in Afghanistan than its annual aid to Israel.

Somehow, I missed all the articles from those people about how much was being spent in Afghanistan. Their concern for US taxpayers seemed to end with the aid to Israel.

Look at it this way: at the current amount of aid to Israel, it will take 571 years for the US to spend that same amount on Israel. 

But even that isn't close to the reality. The US added that $2 trillion to its massive national debt to pay for Afghanistan. If it is paying only 3% interest on the $2 trillion, that is an additional $60 billion in interest payments every year. Meaning that for the foreseeable future, just the interest payments for Afghanistan will continue to cost the US far more than aid to Israel - with nothing at all gained.

Where is all the concern for US taxpayers now?

(UPDATE: I had miscalculated the interest payment as $6 billion instead of $60 billion. h/t Irene)