Originally posted by: Harvey
Originally posted by: Patranus
The current estimated cost of war in Iraq (3/20/2003-6/9/2009) is approximately 676 billion dollars, well under the "trillions" you claim.
Expanding on
Phokus's point, your "current estimate" fails to estimate a lot of the real costs we'll be paying for decades. Do you include the cost of death benifits, or the cost of continuing care for our wounded troops for the remainder of their lives, or the cost of lost productivity from those killed those wounded, or the cost of any number of lost alternative revenue producing investment opportunities in infrastructure, education and more? Do they even contemplate the cost of the interest on the huge deficits caused by the war in Iraq?
There's a lot more to consider beyond what's contemplated in your "current estimated cost of war."
THE RECKONING
The Iraq War Will Cost Us $3 Trillion, and Much More
By Linda J. Bilmes and Joseph E. Stiglitz
Sunday, March 9, 2008; Page B01
There is no such thing as a free lunch, and there is no such thing as a free war. The Iraq adventure has seriously weakened the U.S. economy, whose woes now go far beyond loose mortgage lending. You can't spend $3 trillion -- yes, $3 trillion -- on a failed war abroad and not feel the pain at home.
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But the costs to our society and economy are far greater. When a young soldier is killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, his or her family will receive a U.S. government check for just $500,000 (combining life insurance with a "death gratuity") -- far less than the typical amount paid by insurance companies for the death of a young person in a car accident. The stark "budgetary cost" of $500,000 is clearly only a fraction of the total cost society pays for the loss of life -- and no one can ever really compensate the families. Moreover, disability pay seldom provides adequate compensation for wounded troops or their families. Indeed, in one out of five cases of seriously injured soldiers, someone in their family has to give up a job to take care of them.
But beyond this is the cost to the already sputtering U.S. economy. All told, the bill for the Iraq war is likely to top $3 trillion. And that's a conservative estimate.
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(continues)
And that doesn't address the cost of the economic disaster caused by the Bushwhackos' complete abandonment of oversight and control of their wealthy Wall Street robber baron contributors. I already acknoledged that they weren't alone in dismantling it, but it was all their show when the warning signs appeard, and they took us from a surplus to deficits.
