• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

The two major wars launched since the 9/11 attacks ten years ago have cost American tax payers upwards of $1.2 trillion – a number so large it’s difficult to fathom, especially during this era of job cuts and dwindling social services. Worse, the dollars spent have resulted in little that is positive for either Iraqis, Afghans, or Americans. The Cost of War project began counting the dollars spent on the wars of the last ten years, and a new campaign entitled Ten Years and Counting was launched this year, inviting artists to express the true costs of war. “Paint it, dance it, sculpt it, write it, sing it” encourages the website of Ten Years and Counting. In the month between September 11th and October 7th, the tenth anniversary of the Afghanistan war, Americans opposed to war are invited to organize “[c]oncerts, public art projects, garden parties, bake-offs, gallery exhibitions, street art, flash mobs, walks and runs,” and post them to the website tenyearsandcounting.com. Among the national partners involved in the effort are groups like the American Friends Service Committee, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace, and the War Resisters League.

GUEST: Camille Gage, Artist Co-Founder of Ten Years and Counting, and the National Coordinator of the Project

Find out more about the project at www.10yearsandcounting.org.

A major Los Angeles-area event this weekend is LA Vs. War, listed on the 10 Years and Counting Campaign:

LA Vs. WAR II will mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11 2001 attacks with a massive group art exhibition and event taking place in Downtown LA from 9/9/11 to 9/11/11. Artists from LA and beyond will examine the questions: After 10 years of the Global War on Terror, where do we now stand as a nation? Is the world a safer place? Where does the Peace movement go from here?

Find out more details about LA Vs. War at www.vswar.org