So what you're saying is that American government contractors aren't Americans?

I think someone else made this point above - if the money wasn't spent on the military, it wasn't going to be spent at all. It's like when you take out a mortgage. That money is going to your home. It's not money that you now have lying around to do what you want with it.

So that trillion dollars that they incurred for this war, it was for the war. It wasn't available for education, healthcare or anything else.

Whether the government has the political will to incur a trillion dollar debt for education or healthcare is a completely separate question, though clearly the answer is no.

And whether that money was well-spent is also a separate question. (Answer: probably not.) But that doesn't meant it was sent out into the ether of Afghanistan, either.