Conflicts' costs may exceed $700 billion

[quaoar]

http://www.detnews.com/2005/nation/0507/25/A05-257768.htm

War in Iraq, Afghanistan saddles U.S. taxpayers with enormous debt, critics say; deficit spending blamed.

By James Sterngold / San Francisco Chronicle

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost taxpayers $314 billion, and the Congressional Budget Office projects additional expenses of perhaps $450 billion over the next 10 years.

That could make the combined campaigns, especially the war in Iraq, the most expensive military effort in the last 60 years, causing even some conservative experts to criticize the open-ended commitment to an elusive goal. The concern is that the soaring costs, given little weight before now, could play a growing role in U.S. strategic decisions because of the fiscal impact.

"Osama (bin Laden) doesn't have to win; he will just bleed us to death," said Michael Scheuer, a former counterterrorism official at the CIA who led the pursuit of bin Laden and recently retired after writing two books critical of the Clinton and Bush administrations. "He's well on his way to doing it."

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonpartisan Washington think tank, has estimated that the Korean War cost about $430 billion and the Vietnam War cost about $600 billion, in current dollars. According to the latest estimates, the cost of the war in Iraq could exceed $700 billion.

[PSPS]

1. There's one big difference

Unlike the expenditures during Korea and even Vietnam, the majority of the money being spent on bush's wars is just lining the pockets of his war-profiteering and campaign-contributing cronies.

What we need is a little more Harry S. Truman here. In WWII, his "Truman Committee" protected taxpayers from these traitorous war profiteers and Halliburton-esqe contracts.

Also, what we need here is a little more FDR:

[Old and In the Way]

2. It is all about the war profiteering, wndfall profits for Big Oil, and

treason. No going back. Your either with us or against us. I'm against them.

[acmejack]

8. I'm with you against them!

I am ready to take my Country back! NOW!!

[WhiteTara]

17. what happened to the "buck stops here"

and he goes out and falls on his sword?

[saigon68]

3. "FREEDOM" IS ON THE MARCH

Its really good to see all seniors can afford their prescriptions and that there's no hunger in amerika </sarcasm>

[entanglement]

4. Would it ever occur to these

monsters to spend 700 billion on fighting poverty and unemployment? Providing better healthcare? Education? Nah, can't have 'entitlements' and 'handouts' now, can we? :sarcasm:

[rodeodance]

5. "conflict"---???

[DS1]

14. It's only 2500 for every man woman and child inthe United States

by my numbers. 700B / 280M

[wli]

6. Cheney wants to be a trillionaire

The DoD should take offense to being robbed blind (i.e. there are signs of other problems).

[DeepModem Mom]

7. kick

[UpInArms]

9. math doesn't work

$314B in 3 years - $450B for 10 more years.

Nope - not buying.

Try using $1 TRILLION for the next ten years.

The cost for the conflicts (?) are not winding down - they are racheting up.

Are they calculating anything in for the medical costs of the returning maimed and PTSD cases?

Are they calculating the cost of replacing the Humvees that are being blown apart on every inch of Iraqi sand?

Wear and tear on equipment, loss of military lives, destroyed futures, "rebuilding" costs?

Nope. Still not buying a reduced cost per year for the next ten years when the numbnuts in charge say that the "War on Terra" will continue indefinitely.

[Neshanic]

12. Yes, the math does not work. Trillion is more like.

[Jacobin]

22. Yep. They are MINIMIZING the costs

Its ticking along at $5 billion a month right now.

[sidpleasant]

10. That can't be right

Paul Wolfowitz told us that the invasion would only cost about $1 billion, and that Iraq's oil revenues would pay for the reconstruction. I can't believe that a distinguished public servant like the former deputy secretary of defense would mislead the American people. :sarcasm:

[Arkansas Granny]

16. So I'm not the only one

who remembers what a bargain this war was supposed to be for us. It was actually going to pay for itself, no?

[SlavesandBulldozers]

18. i love your name

welcome.

yes. 1 billion. 6 days. 6 weeks. i doubt 6 months. One thing's for sure though, once they start greeting us with flowers we'll know all the saddam-loyalists, fedayeen, republican-guards, n dead-enders have had enough freedom-hating - and they will get to the work of building schools, fountains, amusement parks and strip malls - and Iraq will become a beacon of peace and prosperity that will be the envy of all humankind for all of eternity.

[Endangered Specie]

11. Why do I get the feeling this will hit 13 figures

by the time its all said and done?

[enough]

13. kick

[Supersedeas]

15. Is Osama bleeds us to death--will * be is 'unlikely' accomplice?

[struggle4progress]

19. $2 billion a week for international water and sewer development ..

.. would have created enormous good will: but the money we're pissing money away for an unnecessary war is effectively recruiting a new generation of terrorists.

[pinniped]

20. 1 trillion is the goal.

Billions are still too measurable.

[Barkley]

21. Would the Iraqis spend $700 billion to 'liberate' America?

I don't think so!