Iraq War: Lives Lost or Money Spent, Either Way the Cost is Too High
The Iraq war has contributed to the U.S. economic slowdown and is impeding an economic recovery, Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says.
A new book by Stiglitz and co-author Linda Bilmes, “The Three Trillion Dollar War” reinforces the cold hard facts that Americans face because of Bush’s Iraq war. They estimate the true cost of the war to be at least $3 trillion, and this does not take into account interest paid on the debt to finance the war, costs for caring for veterans when they return home, or replacing the destroyed and degraded equipment caused by the war. Not to mention the cost of the promised reconstruction of Iraq which cannot begin until this war has ended!
This estimate also does not take into account the human lives lost, which you can’t put a price tag on because it is the most valuable casualty of this war.
They outline in their book an example of how the money could be spent elsewhere. They cite the annual U.S. budget for autism research is $108 million, which is spent every four hours in Iraq. A trillion dollars could hire an additional 15 million public school teachers for a year, or provide 43 million students with four year scholarships to public universities.
You get the picture. The money that is being spent on this war is stealing money from our children’s future. Where is the money going to come from to pay for it? The country is in debt up to it’s eyeballs because we’ve had to borrow money to finance the war. What happened to Rumsfeld’s and Wolfowitz’s projections of having the Iraq war pay for itself by using oil revenues? Oh right, I forgot that was a lie too!
Then there are the hidden costs, like the underreporting of casualty figures by the Pentagon. The official Pentagon figure of nearly 30,000 wounded in action fails to account for an addition 40,000 service members who have required medical attention for noncombat injuries or illness.
The “trickle down” effects of this war will be with us for a very very long time, and it will be our children that will ultimately pay the price tag for this war.
Technorati Tags: Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Cost of War, War in Iraq, U.S. Economy
Sphere: Related ContentBookmark this article!
Email Vicezilla
Bush has wronged the USA by spending so much money on the war.. it is almost beyond recovery now. What will our nation come to if we dont get wiped out in 2012? Will our nation ever recover from the damages bush has done to our nation?
Crystal
Sadly, it will be our children’s and their children that will carry the majority of the burden of his messes, socially and financially. What a legacy he will be leaving us!