The $3,850 per second war and its victims:Bernd Debusmann

[go west young man]

Source: Reuters

By Bernd Debusmann WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Assuming you read at average speed, by the time you get to the bottom of this column, the war in Iraq will have cost the United States another $760,000. More than $4 million of U.S. taxpayers' money ebbed away in the 18 minutes it took George W. Bush to explain to his country and the world last week why the war he ordered would last well beyond his presidency.

During an eight-hour working day, U.S. tax dollars spent in the battle zones of Iraq total $112 million. These figures are extrapolated from a report by the Congressional Research Service (CSR), a bipartisan agency which provides research and analysis for the U.S. Congress. It put the war's average cost in 2007 at around $10 billion a month.

That translates into $333 million a day, $14 million an hour, $231,000 a minute and $3,850 a second. Even for the world's richest country, this is serious money.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP125382.htm

[patrice]

1. And I'll bet that doesn't even include the "Marshall Plan" for Iraq

once there is something approximating Peace there.

[Journeyman]

2. Now, the Washington Post pegs costs for the Catastroph@#k at $720 million a day. . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092102074.html?nav=most_emailed

discussed on DU here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x309405


I wonder which calculation is closest to reality? Or if we'll ever truly know. . .