Real cost of US war with Iraq: $1.7 trillion
A new report shows the Bush administration's initial estimates were about 30 times too low.

It seems so ridiculous now. A decade ago, the Bush administration estimated the cost of war with Iraq at $50 billion to $60 billion. Money well spent when you considered the good that would come out of the action, many thought.

A new report out this month shows how incredibly low that estimate was. Total U.S. taxpayer spending on that war is up to $1.7 trillion, according to the Costs of War Project.

http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=c6dd9699-4865-4242-852e-0773529464fc

Fishy

Don't forget all those oil revenues that were going to pay for it, too, so that it would actually cost "zero dollars"...

Fish on...

Todd

Like!

The claim was the war would cost between 40-60 billion.

It wasn't even close.

Fugly.Good luck,
SZ

Well, it cost a pretty penny, but at least that "Terror" guy got what he had coming... DOH!

Sickening. The human toll is staggering as well. Besides all those that lost their lives, we'll be dealing with the mental and physical injuries for decades to come.

It was such a blatant, poorly-delivered sham from the start but between the fear and the pep rallies, it was easy to get the media on board and roll the public. I lost a lot of faith in a lot of things because of it. It was the final proof to me that, as a country, we were on the way out.

When will that happen Hank? When will the taxpayers get reimbursed?

The amazing thing is how geared up people are to go repeat this...

Syria? North Korea? AQ in Africa?

This is one area where I think our security *and* our fiscal situation both can dramatically benefit from not thinking we are the solution to every problem.

HERE are all the debt clocks running real time. Some interesting figures cranking up and up....

National Debt minus 1.7 Trillion = 15 Trillion of National Debt remaining.

Boy, I feel better now.

1.7 trillion here 1.7 trillion there. It all adds up.

Agreed IR.

Unfortunately for all of us, so many people within the US live in a reality where they think the Terrorists are out to get us, That the Dictators of the world who oppose U.S policy are enemies which must be destroyed. They suck up all the mainstream news and dont ask any questions about what Charles Gibson on ABC says. These are the same people who say "lets just nuke all the camel jockeys and turn it into glass" without really thinking at all about what that means. Rah Rah, US Army.... 'Hoorah Marines....lets go kick some ass...without really thinking at all why you are running out the door to kick some ass. These people support these policies... F'n Blockheads they are.

Then, there are the people who go against the mainstream ideaologies..the so called Conspiracy Theorists, and Tin foil hat wearers. The people who all along are now being proven correct.

We now see the true imperialist agenda in 20/20 hindsight, where before, and during the war, the war was sold to the American people based on the lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was linked to Al-Qaeda. The word ‘oil’ was never even mentioned.

But in fact, the motives for this war were a grand imperialist agenda to restructure the entire Middle East and Central Asia and to use it in a geopolitical competition to make the US the world’s dominant super-power for decades to come, with oil being just one element of that broad agenda.

The oil wont be of benefit to the Iraqi people. it's revenues wont be used to rebuild their homes or infrastructure, or to pay for the continuing costs of security or perhaps mental health of veterans. it will go line the pockets of major corporations who won the no bid contracts. Just Facts.

No One even talks about Iraq anymore, unless a big bomb went off and killed 50+ people on a Tuesday morning. Of course, the continued violence is entirely due to the unresolved issues between the Sunni and US-installed Shia Government, who tortured and killed ten of thousands in the name of ethnic cleansing. We still pump the Shia full of aid all year every year.

Sadly, as we have seen and will continue to see...War is now an embedded part of US economic and foreign policy.

SG just hit this one out of the park!

The unfortunate part Dave, is that even here on the outspoken darkside which is full of opinions and assholes..., people are so sick of talking about Iraq, the aftermath, the costs, etc..they have become apathetic to the situation and dont care to actually do anything about it. Then comes Libya, then Syria, then maybe Africa, I wonder what country is in the queue?
We keep seeing a war, and a "made for US audiences" war...on TV day in and day out, year in and year out, and as a society have become apathetic to it. It's become routine. Only a revolution will eventually change this reality.

F it.. I'm gonna go have a beer

A trillion dollars is a stack of $1000 bills 67.9 miles high.

Well if the atmosphere is 300 miles deep, we could just stack up the debt and have a fourth of it just float off into space?

Deficits, Debts and Democrats vs Republicans — US national debt in graphs by year and president

You might have already noted that the debt soared in proportion to GDP under President Obama, but the Obama years do not afford a fair comparison of Republican vs Democrat on the national debt because we entered what may eventually be called the Great Depression II during the Bush II years. Let me put it another way: I don’t believe for a second that Republicans, who presided over the creation of this global depression, would have fared any better than Obama when it comes to US deficits for the following reason: Obama has carried out exactly the economic policies that Bush switched to in his final year.

If you don’t think he has, it’s time to remember that, when the so-called “Great Recession” began, George W. Bush said he had to “give up on my Capitalist principles” and approved a 900-billion dollar bailout to be followed by ANOTHER 900 billion later if necessary.

http://thegreatrecession.info/blog/defic...year-president/

Fishy

A look at lives lost as U.S. deaths in Iraq near 4,000

One in six were too young to buy a beer. About two dozen were old enough for an AARP card. Eleven died on Thanksgiving Day, 11 on Christmas, and at least five on their birthdays. One percent were named Smith.

As the nation approaches its 4,000th Iraq war fatality — on Thursday the toll stood at 3,983 servicemembers plus eight Defense Department civilians — a USA TODAY analysis shows who gave their lives, where they came from and how they fell:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-20-iraq-4000-deaths_N.htm

Fishy

No you can't!

I still wonder what the money and blood bought us....