From the overworked mind of Chuq
Since my days in the military I have been fascinated by war…..its causes and results…….and I have also been anti-war for a host of reasons…….most of which deals with the cost of war. The human cost and the monetary cost…….but what if they threw a war and could afford to fight it……a country could do what the US is famous for doing…..either raid a well funded program such as social security or just fight the war on credit…….and run deficit crisis for decades to come……..
Has anyone ever considered alternative ways of funding a war?
Ever hear of crowdfunding? In case you are not in the business of raising money let me help with the definition……..”the practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet”…………yes a relative new idea for raising money but can it be used to fund a war?
Yes there is an answer to that question and the NT Times has presented the subject in a recent article…….
A high-profile New York Times article today trumpets the story that Russian NGOs are “crowdfunding” the Ukrainian Civil War, raising money to subsidize the various rebel factions in Eastern Ukraine to resist the invasion by the US-backed government.
Terrorist groups have been crowdfunding for years, and would-be ISIS recruits are regularly using crowdfunding to pay for their trips to Syria to join them. It’s not even just the one side in the ISIS war, a US-based NGO made up of former special forces has been crowdfunding an effort to pay for “humanitarian” aid to Kurdish groups, which broadly defines humanitarian aid to include “combat training.” Assyrian Christian groups on the outskirts of Mosul have similarly crowdfunding their own army to resist ISIS.
There seems to be examples for successful crowdfunding of wars and armed conflicts……maybe the US should tap into some of those that profit the most off of a “good” war like Halliburton, KBR and a wealth of other so-called defense contractors…..after all over the years they have made hundreds of billions, if not trillions, in the business of war………. now let them foot some of the bill as they will be making money on the back end of any action.
I realize that may seem a bit farfetched but why not try this……it would keep valued and much needed programs from suffering budget cuts to help pay for a war…….as it is in the US every social program has suffered cutbacks to pay for decades of war……programs that are needed to keep the country moving forward like education, health care, infrastructure, etc.
Apparently the US will be fighting wars continuously for decades, possibly for generations, then it is time to find extra funding to save the American society from collapse.