AFP: Iraq war has cost US 350 billion dollars

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The war in Iraq has cost the United States more than 350 billion dollars since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP review of Congress figures.

About 290 billion dollars, including 254 billion for military operations, were allocated for the war in fiscal year 2006, which closed on September 30, according to a September 22 report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The Congressional Research Service estimated the cost at 319 billion dollars, representing 73 percent of US spending for the "war on terror" launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Congress has approved 70 billion dollars for the "war on terror" in the 2007 defense budget that includes about 50 billion dollars for the Iraq conflict, bringing the three-and-a-half-year spending over 350 billion dollars.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usiraqpoliticsreport

[maxsolomon]

1. BORROWED 350 bn

cost = principal + interest

[Red Zelda]

2. I once thought

we could cover Mars with deep-pile carpet for that much money.
So much for American ingenuity.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

51. A carpet of $100 bills.

[nealmhughes]

3. That is over $1000 for every man, woman and child and a few million cats

thrown in.

Think of what we could have done with that money to infrastructure and healthcare...

[Deep13]

8. There's always money for murder and destruction.

Getting money for a school or hospital is like drawing teeth.

In the novel Dracula, when Harker stabs Drac in his sleep, the vampire does not bleed, but rather leaks gold coins. It was always the neocon plan to suck us dry. Actually, dry would be an improvement because then we would not owe anything.

[The Stranger]

9. $1400 per year is $116.7 per month for HEALTH CARE for every single

person in the fucking U.S. for a whole year.

[Yavin4]

24. If That Money Did Pay for Healthcare, It Would Get Circulated Back Into The Economy

The $350 billion would free up millions of small businesses and other business to provide health care. Without that burden, salaries would rise and a new wave of spending would flow through the economy.

Giving it to the war machine only means that very, very few people would benefit.

[The Stranger]

26. Very true -- you would have a multiplier effect (or something like that).

[demobrit]

49. Just a small amount of that would feed Africa

[smirkymonkey]

46. I can't tell you how angry this makes me.

What a sickening waste of lives and resources.

[Duer 157099]

4. Or, $350B transferred to ...?

That money went somewhere. Just a simple transfer of wealth from the have-nots to the have-mores.

[shanti]

25. exactly

it did not all go to the "iraq war".

[rateyes]

5. Wrap your head around those numbers....

That comes to 11 million dollars every HOUR. That is $183,000.00 every minute. That's two 90,000.00 homes a minute NOT being rebuilt in New Orleans. That's $180.00 a month for each one of the 44 million people without health insurance that is NOT being spent for that health care. That's 2 5.5 million dollar school buildings each HOUR that are not being built to help educate our children. At a thousand dollars a day, it would take us approximately 9 MILLION YEARS to pay off that debt if it DIDN'T accrue interest...and we're still spending like drunken sailors on this illegal, immoral war.

It's all about priorities.

[humbled_opinion]

6. Simply madness! n/t

[Deep13]

7. Yeah, but look how much we have to show for it.

To think I complained about $40 billion for missle defense.

[niceypoo]

10. When Bush is out of office we will find out what the real number is...

I am sure they have played a shell game to hide the real numbers. Probabally closer to $500 billion. You must remember, everything is a lie with these people.

[OhioChick]

11. Utterly Pathetic!

K&R
:kick:

[VegasWolf]

12. I heard somewhere that a school room in Iraq was painted. nt

[KamaAina]

13. A billion here, a billion there...

pretty soon it adds up to real money! :eyes:

Explain to me again why we're cutting taxes for the super-rich AND pouring a third of a trillion dollars down the Iraq rathole? :grr:

edit: spelling

[Laura PourMeADrink]

14. Big Deal - It's a small percentage of GDP

That's what Tony Snow or any other right wingnut would say. I scream when they use that excuse for the deficit.

[MannyGoldstein]

15. I Believe That This Is A Tremendous Understatement

I recall that this figure does not factor in the cost of:
1. Things in inventory that will need to be replaced prematurely because of use in a war
2. Future medical costs incurred by the VA by those wounded.

All told, my understanding is that the true cost is roughly twice the $350 Billion.

We are suckers!

[civildisoBDence]

18. If health care costs for vets are fully funded, including mental health issues,

I read the figure approaches $1 trillion.

Not to worry--we'll never fully fund health care for anyone.

Newsprism

[Blaze Diem]

16. Well Then That Certainly Demands a $$$500 BAJILLION Effing Library..

George should be removed from Office and from our Nation.

Could we PLEEASE take the damn National Credit Card away from this wackjob!!

[JHB]

43. We did.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

17. Not us, but our children and grandchildren.

Which, for me, makes it even worse.

[connecticut yankee]

19. and how much of that

went to Halliburton?

[Auggie]

20. Just think of the R&D that could have gone into alternate fuels

[SKKY]

21. I was going to post that very question....

...If Brazil can do it, why can't we? Plus, with the change, we could probably change a few minds in Africa
and provide a good number of people down there with clean, disease-free running water instead of those
stupid-ass laptops. I'm an IT (Network engineer), but I still don't know what a kid who doesn't know where
his next meal is coming from is going to do with a laptop.

[Auggie]

22. Not to mention the distribution channels we'll need. And public transit....

the list goes on and on.

[happydreams]

28. I did a rough calculation awhile back. Somewhere around

33 million homes could be solarized with this money.

[shanti]

23. yes, and

wanna bet that when * leaves office, there will be practically nothing left?? i do NOT trust them one iota! if they SAY it cost $350 billion, you can be assured that it's MUCH more!

[leftchick]

27. what a joke. TRY TWO TRILLION DOLLARS!!!!!

350 billion is nothing compared to what is coming....

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0110/dailyUpdate.html

Report: Iraq war costs could top $2 trillion
New study takes into account long-term costs of healthcare for wounded soldiers.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

A new study by Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001, and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes concludes that the total costs of the Iraq war could top the $2 trillion mark. Reuters reports this total, which is far above the US administration's prewar projections, takes into account the long term healthcare costs for the 16,000 US soldiers injured in Iraq so far.

"Even taking a conservative approach, we have been surprised at how large they are," the study said, referring to total war costs. "We can state, with some degree of confidence, that they exceed a trillion dollars."

The higher $2 trillion amount takes a 'moderate' approach. Both figures are based on the projection that US troops will remain in Iraq until 2010, with steadily decreasing numbers each year. The economists also used government data from past wars, and included such costs as the rise in the price of oil, a larger US deficit and greater global insecurity caused by the war, the loss to the economy from injured veterans who cannot contribute as productively as they would have done if not injured, and the increased costs of recruiting to replenish a military drained by repeated tours of duty in Iraq. These are items which are almost never included by the US government when determining the cost of the war.

Before the war started, Mitch Daniels, then the White House budget director, had said the war would be an "affordable endeavor" and rejected an estimate by the chief White House economic adviser that the war would cost between $100 billion and $200 billion as "very, very high."

The Office of Management and Budget "does not comment on this type of speculation," said spokesman Rich Walker. Reuters also reports that a Marine Corps spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Roseann Lynch, said Monday that the war is costing the US about $4.5 billion a month in military "operating costs," not including procurement of new weapons and equipment. Colonel Lynch said the war in Iraq had cost $173 billion to date.

[bemildred]

29. Don't forget, social security is going broke.

And we can't afford national health care.
And our schools suck.
And a college education is very expensive.
And we don't need safe, cheap, efficient public transportation.
But Iraq, we got $360 billion to go make it a disneyland for terrorists.

[cassiepriam]

30. Bush gambled with our money and lost.... what does he care?

[The Wielding Truth]

33. We need to make him give up his land in Paraguay and go directly

to jail.

[cassiepriam]

41. I wish we could get back the money he stole from us....

but it will never happen.
They rob others and get away with it.

[The Wielding Truth]

50. Remember the Gang of Four?............. Well, they don't all get away with it!

[Blue_Tires]

31. that's a lot of cayman bank accounts for the bfee

[Zambero]

32. Yes, but was sex between consenting adults was involved in this fiasco?

If the answer is NO, here's the verdict:
No blow-job, no impeach. Them's the rules, y'know!

[BlueEyedSon]

34. This is a trillion dollar war ($1.4T)

[mnhtnbb]

35. Anyone have figures on what's been spent to 'rebuild' New Orleans?

[lovuian]

36. Robbed our children of their future

Someone has to pay and let it be the rich CEO's that do...

[savemefromdumbya]

37. You can see how much could have been spent

however it is not good to use borrowed money

[OneBlueSky]

38. imagine what $350 billion could have done for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast . . . n/t

.

[Lasher]

39. The US budget for Iraq in FY 2006 comes to $3,749/Iraqi.

This is more than double their per person GDP. It's like spending $91,000 per person in the US. Why not just bribe the whole country?

"We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." – Wolfowitz, March 28, 2003.

http://zfacts.com/p/447.html

[sweetheart]

40. wrong, its much much more

Lets do some math.

Dead soldiers -- 3,000
Dead civilians -- 200,000
conservative death toll: 203,000

Monetary value per life: 7,000,000 dollars as calculated from necessary automobile recalls

203,000 * 7,000,000 = 1,421,000,000,000 which is 1 trillion, four hundred billion dollars.

The culture of death does not value life, but lets see what price they put on life?

350 billion dollars divided by a conservative death toll of 200,000 or a moderate
death toll estimate, still conservative, 500,000.

at 200,000, the value of a life is 1,750,000
at 500,000, the value of a life is 700,000 dollars
at 700,000, the value of a life is 500,000 dollars.

So, the accountant that prepared the estimate values life at between 500,000 and a million per life,
far below a reasonable estimate, rather a racist valuation of the cost of war.

The real cost is at least 2 trillion in lives lost alone, not counting any military costs.

If every republican asset needs to be mortaged and sold off to pay for their war crimes,
it won't happen fast enough. Perhaps if all republicans were simply shipped over to iraq
to live in their utopic jesus society.

[Loge23]

42. I second that!

The serious crimes of the repuke party must be paid for.
What is all of this debate about impeachment anyway?? What further evidence of this incredibly brazen heinous crime does one need??! I want justice. Now!

"If every republican asset needs to be mortaged and sold off to pay for their war crimes,
it won't happen fast enough. Perhaps if all republicans were simply shipped over to iraq
to live in their utopic jesus society." - sweetheart

[AllegroRondo]

44. We could have had national health care for that price

what a fiasco

[BlueEyedSon]

45. Or used it to move toward US energy self-sufficiency

[Solly Mack]

47. The "cost" has been far greater than that

Money can't measure the true cost

just saying...

[Cass]

48. The Bush Administration is looting the treasury. These numbers are insane.

All that money spent, all that blood spilled and for what? What has this accomplished? OBL is still on the loose and we've created a terrorism haven in Iraq. When I think of all the good things that could have been done with that money I just want to cry.