211849 Costs of war for working people

Tuesday, November 10, 2009: 4:50 PM

John Braxton, MS , Department of Biology Community College of Philadelphia, Co-President, American Federation of Teachers Local 2026, Community College of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
  
The talk will address the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to working people in terms of what the money spent there could have bought if the funds had been spent on health care, education, construction of new schools, etc. It will then address the US strategic interests and how the US involvement mirrors our history of global interventions. The focus will be on how much of our tax dollar is spent on this global military reach: who pays for it and who benefits? The talk will also discuss a Rand Corporation study on how military strategies are not effective in dealing with terrorism, and close with a look at what a foreign policy would look like that works for working families.

Learning Objectives:
1) Describe what the funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could have provided if directed toward health care, education, and other societal needs. 2) Analyze the relationship between US strategic interests and global interventions. 3) Describe a potential US foreign policy that would benefit working people.

Keywords: Iraq, Labor

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am on the US Labor Against the War Steering Committee; also, Co-President, American Federation of Teachers Local 2026, Community College of Philadelphia
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Building A Peace Economy
See more of: Peace Caucus