the george bush legacy. the gift that just keeps on giving. Iraq war will cost more than World War II Iraq war, now winding down with US troop exit by December, has cost more than $800 billion so far. But ongoing medical treatment, replacement vehicles, etc., will push costs to $4 trillion or more. Anyone curious about the cost of Americaâs wars in Iraq and Afghanistan can look it up on costofwar.com, up to the latest fraction of a second. Last weekend, the Iraq war had cost more than $800 billion since 2001; the Afghan war, $467 billion plus. For the 8-1/2-year conflict in Iraq alone, that works out to nearly $3,000 a second. So President Obamaâs announcement that all US troops will be out of Iraq by year end should mean some drop in ongoing military spending. But the budget relief probably wonât be as much as you might expect. Tragically, beside the financial cost, there is the human toll. The war in Iraq has resulted in some 4,480 US troops killed and more than 32,000 wounded. (The Iraqis have suffered far more fatalities, about 654,965, according to the British medical journal The Lancet.) Thus, ongoing medical and disability claims and treatment of US veterans will boost the costs of the Iraq war even more. IN PICTURES: Christians in Iraq Throw in the replacement of vehicles, weapons, equipment, etc., and the eventual tab for the United States could reach $4 trillion to $6 trillion, according to University of Columbia economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University budget expert Linda Bilmes. Those are big numbers. They would be on par with the $4.6 trillion the US spent on the recent financial bailouts, according to Barry Ritholtz, CEO of Wall Street research firm Fusion IQ and author of the popular blog The Big Picture. (Another estimate puts the bailout cost at $8.7 trillion.) The sum spent on the Iraq war could pay for a good chunk of Obamacare, professor Bilnes estimates. Itâs more than the $3.6 trillion the US spent to fight World War II, even after adjusting for inflation, Mr. Ritholtz estimates. http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/new-economy/2011/1025/Iraq-war-will-cost-more-than-World-War-II
For once we agree. And what did we get out of it? We turned a secular regime that was a counterweight to Iran into an islamist colony of Iran. Good planning, Bush and State Department. Now we have spent a cool $1 billion on the largest U.S. Embassy in the world there. And for what? Of course, the big thinkers at the State Department want to do even more in Afghanistan. If I were president, I would make it a priority to clean out the upper echelons of both the defense and state departments. CIA too.
Unless we are pulling all the taxpayer funded contractors out of Iraq, Obama's policies are adding to the total cost. Are we?
We did a damn good job getting Saddam and his evil muzzie henchmen killed. Let us never forget that Saddam sent scuds into our Israeli allies' country, killing I think one Israeli citizen. Iraq deserved to be flattened for that, and the price the USA has paid in billions of $ was worth spending to avenge the dead Israeli citizen. God bless America and Israel.
This is insane. No single life, especially a noncitizen, is worth the cost of the Iraqi War to the USA in lives, materiel and money. I hope this is some sick joke because it is pure madness if you're being serious. Saddam was already neutralized and had NOTHING to do with 9/11. Pulling troops and resources out of Afghanistan drastically increased the costs there and put us in an even costlier war in Iraq. The Bush/Cheney administration and the neoconservatives have put us in the hole for decades to come. No hell is too deep or too hot for those scumbags.
Flippity Flop Romney will say whatever it takes to get the teavangelists to vote for him. Then he'll flipflop back in the general campaign. There are worms with more backbone than Romney.
All the money spent on the Iraq war probably produced more business and more jobs per dollar then the 900 Billion stimulus Obama stuck us with.