BRATTLEBORO — The United States has an annual base military budget that is larger than the next eight countries combined. It has more than 800 bases around the globe.
According to the Defense Department, from 2011 to 2014 “special operations forces deployed into more than 150 countries.” Nearly 50 percent of the annual discretionary budget goes to the military, close to $1 trillion.
According to a Harvard Kennedy School study in 2013, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are the most expensive in U.S. history, costing between $4 and $6 trillion.
The most powerful military on the planet, and yet the U.S. does not provide adequate housing for its citizens who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. There are still more than 40,000 veterans who do not have a place to live tonight.
You can help by supporting Home at Last, a local volunteer organization putting our vets into homes.