On FPF #419, I discuss all the money the US is wasting on war. The Watson Institute has an update on the cost of war project; the US has spent $6.4 trillion since 2001 on the Terror Wars. The wars have been a complete failure, took thousands of American lives, hundreds of thousands of lives of innocent civilians, made the world a less safe place, and spread the Osama bin Laden ideology. We must end the wars to save money and lives. 

Links

Terror Wars

• The Watson Institute reports the US spent $6.4 trillion on the Terror Wars. [Link]

Bolivia

• Bolivia’s interim president decares Morales and his vice president cannot run for president in upcoming elections. [Link]

North Korea

• North Korea rebuffs an offer from the US to engage in December talks. North Korea said the offer was just to appease Kim Jong-un’s year-end deadline. North Korea called on the US to call off scheduled war games with South Korea. [Link]

Afghanistan 

• An American diplomat says the planned prisoner swap for  American and Australian professors did not happen. [Link]

Syria

• The US sanctions 22 companies and individuals for assisting Syria’s WMD program. [Link] 
• DefSec Mark Esper says about 600 troops will remain in Syria to defeat IS and guard the oil. [Link]
• Trump is withholding troop numbers for Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. [Link]
• A senior administration official says the US has no intention of ending its alliance with the Syrian Kurdish militia. [Link]
• The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports two civilians were killed by Turkish forces during a joint Turkish/Russian parol through a Kurdish city. [Link]
• US drones captured video of Turkish backed Syria rebels committing war crimes against Syrian civilians. [Link]
• France agrees to take back 11 suspected jihadists from Turkey. [Link]
• Russia identified 2,000 Russian nationals living in the Middle East with connections to people who are members of militias. [Link]
• The founder of the White Helmets has been found dead outside of his home in Istanbul. He is believed to have fallen off of a balcony. [Link]
• Turkey has started to deport people who are either suspected IS fighters or connected to IS fighters. Turkey has complained that foreign countries are too slow to take back their captured IS fighters. An American and German were the first people deported. [Link]
• Five people were killed in three bombing in northeast Syria. [Link]

Iraq

• Four more protesters were killed by Iraqi government forces. Over 300 protesters have been killed since October 1. [Link]

Israel 

• 13 people were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza on the second day of fighting. [Link]
• After more than two days of fighting a cease-fire has been reached between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed at least 34 people. Half of the dead are civilians, including eight children. [Link]

Yemen

• A Houthi missile kills five Saudi backed Yemeni soldiers at a major Yemeni army base. [Link]
• Sources report talks are intensifying between Saudi and the Houthi. [Link]

DRC

• The Democratic Republic of the Congo forces killed the leader of a militant Hutu group. [Link] The Congolese Army also claimed to kill 25 Islamist militants. [Link] 

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