How Many Bullets Does It Take To Kill A (Possible) Terrorist?

Apparently, quite a few. In fact, Global Security, a Washington think-tank, has recently estimated the U.S. military uses 250,000 bullets for every (suspected) insurgent it kills. For those keeping track at home, that adds up to about 1.8 billion bullets used each year in our on-going wars.

This is a pretty staggering number (one which the Global Security folks point out is probably an underestimate) and is somewhat emblematic of the problem with these wars in general. The entire existence of the war is predicated on the notion that you can kill people away from believing something, which is both A) not possible, and 2) our definition of terrorism. So we're poured incredible amounts of resources into these wars with little to show for it other than piles of bodies and people even more pissed at us than they were before.

This is also a great number to keep in mind when you see military generals and their lackeys on the news talking about the great "smart" weapons systems we have that can magically tell the difference between a terrorist and and innocent person and can turn corners and probably politely ask to kill someone before they do. Because even with all of these breakthroughs and fancy gizmos, we still apparently have to use a quarter of a million bullets to kill one person. And, of course, we have no idea if that person was a terrorist in the first place, but that's another subject for another day...