Brown University - which for twenty years has been tracking the human and financial cost of the “war without end” or “war on terror” - has drawn up the following provisional results:

– The general human cost (excluding missing persons) is estimated to be between 897,000 and 929,000 fatal casualties. This figure only reflects human losses in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen. At least 120,000 people killed in Libya should be added.

– The financial cost incurred by the United States alone is in the vicinity of $ 8,049,000,000,000. To these 8,000 billion dollars, funded by US taxpayers, should be added several hundred billion siphoned off Afghan, Iraqi, Libyan, Syrian and Yemeni taxpayers whose countries have mostly been left as just a pile in ruins.

The “war without end” is purported to eliminate terrorism. However, since it was launched by President George W. Bush (photo), terrorist operations have never been so numerous and vicious. We even witnessed the rise of a terrorist country: the Islamic State (Emirate) of Iraq and Syria. If we accept the official rhetoric, then we must conclude that this carnage has served no purpose.