Corporate media ignores facts showing costs of war deplete resources for infrastructure, science and education

© Vladimir Pirogov

American servicemen prepare to board a military aircraft bound for Afghanistan in Manas airport in Kyrgyzstan in 2011.

Tuesday, this week, marked 13 years since the start of the Afghan War, when on October 7, 2001 the US and its NATO allies launched Operation Enduring Freedom against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

The war has already become America's longest-running campaign in history. When combined with the war in Iraq, the military campaign has cost taxpayers between $4 trillion and $6 trillion, according to research published last year by a Harvard researcher.

According to the website iCasualties, the US military has suffered 2,349 military fatalities, including 2,144 "in and around Afghanistan".

However, American political writer, peace activist and co-director of the New York-based International Action Center Sara Flounders said in interview with Radio VR that the Americans are largely unaware of all this, because the figures are not revealed to the general public.

"US corporate media works hand in hand with the military and oil corporations," she told Radio VR. "And then there is really a public relations [campaign] armed for these corporations. The consequences and even the fact that these wars are going on are taken out of the news, except for occasional and tiny casualty figures."

"People might know that the wars are continuing but the impact of them and the coverage of this is taken from the folks here in the US," she added.

"We are paying the cost in deteriorating homes and schools right here for these phenomenally expensive wars," she went on. "Taken right now from the pensions funds here, and robbed from schools and hospitals, but that connection is not made by the corporate media."

And this is the fact how low aware people are, she added. The United States differs from many countries in the developed world in that school costs are provided for by bi-annually-levied taxes on municipal real estate rather than income taxes. The United States maintains several federal payroll taxes, including the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes, a regressive pension tax and a flat medical tax which covers pensioners. A high proportion of the remaining federal taxes that Americans pay go to cover military expenses.

The information published by the United States government regarding its federal budget reflects expenses related to services funded by FICA taxes. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, FICA tax-funded expenses constituted 46% of America's 2013 national budget, whereas federal tax-funded military expenses constituted 19% of the budget, making the military the largest non-FICA funded expense. For comparison's sake, 3% of the budget was spent on transportation and infrastructure, 2% was spent on science and medical research, and a miniscule 1% was spent subsidizing America's mostly municipally-funded and state-funded education system.