The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond

[cal04]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090302200.html

Writing in these pages in early 2008, we put the total cost to the United States of the Iraq war at $3 trillion. This price tag dwarfed previous estimates, including the Bush administration's 2003 projections of a $50 billion to $60 billion war. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702846.html)

But today, as the United States ends combat in Iraq, it appears that our $3 trillion estimate (which accounted for both government expenses and the war's broader impact on the U.S. economy) was, if anything, too low. For example, the cost of diagnosing, treating and compensating disabled veterans has proved higher than we expected.

Moreover, two years on, it has become clear to us that our estimate did not capture what may have been the conflict's most sobering expenses: those in the category of "might have beens," or what economists call opportunity costs. For instance, many have wondered aloud whether, absent the Iraq invasion, we would still be stuck in Afghanistan. And this is not the only "what if" worth contemplating. We might also ask: If not for the war in Iraq, would oil prices have risen so rapidly? Would the federal debt be so high? Would the economic crisis have been so severe?

(snip)
The Iraq war didn't just contribute to the severity of the financial crisis, though; it also kept us from responding to it effectively. Increased indebtedness meant that the government had far less room to maneuver than it otherwise would have had. More specifically, worries about the (war-inflated) debt and deficit constrained the size of the stimulus, and they continue to hamper our ability to respond to the recession. With the unemployment rate remaining stubbornly high, the country needs a second stimulus. But mounting government debt means support for this is low. The result is that the recession will be longer, output lower, unemployment higher and deficits larger than they would have been absent the war.

[leveymg]

1. I remember that Stiglitz's original $1.3 trillion estimate was condemned as inconceivable.

Now, it seems too conservative . . . and, then there are those who also call Krugman an alarmist.

Why do so many who should know better deny what is obviously the best proven advice we're getting?

[Frustratedlady]

2. And the big winner is..........Halliburton.

Didn't I see the other day that they got a huge contract in Iraq?

[Raster]

3. Halliburton was the recipient of many of the original no-bid contracts.

And now further contracts even with all the allegations of massive overcharging, shoddy accounting and even shoddier work performed. But now the rationale for giving contracts to Halliburton is that "no one else has the appropriate infrastructure already in place."

Let's see: The PNAC needed a "new Pearl Harbor-type event" and got 9/11. Halliburton, an oil services company in financial straits needed a nice war to develop their new warfare infrastructure divisions, and they get Iraq. And some people in Texas laughed when Halliburton hired Dick Cheney* after Clinton ousted Bush I. Cheney* has turned out to be a VERY GOOD INVESTMENT for Halliburton. And financially Cheney* hasn't done so bad either. All the deferring of pay and stock options has actually increased his potential payouts SEVERAL THOUSAND PERCENT.

All the inter-connectivity is simply astounding! Not to mention the amount of sheer coincidence and out-and-out good fortune!

[Scuba]

5. Gee, it almost makes you wonder...

...if there is a major conspiracy going on right under our noses. :sarcasm:

[Raster]

9. CONSPIRACY THEORIST...Booga Booga!

What are you crazy? Move along citizen, nothing to see here. These aren't the "hijackers" you are looking for.

[Golden Raisin]

4. Just think what 3 trillion

(and I believe in my heart that figure is too low) could have done here at home. Collapsing infrastructure. Schools/Education/Teachers. Highspeed Rail Systems. Homelessness. Decent care and aid for Veterans. Etc. And now, like coal into a furnace, we're shovelling billions into another black hole: Afghanistan.

[Citizen Worker]

6. Bush's first OMB director was fired for publcly stating his estimate of $200 billion.

What far too many leave out or forget will be the added costs of treating veterans exposed to uranium munitions, popularly called "depleted uranium." As it was with Agent Orange it will take decades for the government to finally acknowledge a connection to exposure and use of these cruel munitions. Untold thousands will be affected and who knows how many tens of thousands of Iraqis. And as long as this killer remains in the environment it will continue to claim victims and nothing will be said or done.

[LawnKorn]

7. Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics are laughing all the way to the bank

The Bush Administration launched the gravy train that has been rolling for over eight years with no end in sight.

[indepat]

8. $3 trillion, $5 trillion or what ever: such small prices to pay for the fruition of the long-held RW

PNAC wet dream so magnificently prolonged by this administration. :P

[Raster]

10. If you have not read this *brilliant* post by Time for change, I highly recommend it.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time%20for%20change/575

Standing up to the Military Industrial Congressional Oil Wall Street Complex

Posted by Time for change in General Discussion
Mon Aug 23rd 2010, 08:11 PM

U.S. Presidents must decide what their presidency will mean in the end. If all they want is a few kind words from the Establishment, then they need not rouse themselves. If they want their life’s work to mean more than that, they have to engage the...

In my last post I talked about how the corrupt few are able to wreak so much death, destruction, and suffering on the rest of humanity. Included in that discussion are descriptions of the psychopathic character of the “corrupt few”, as well as societal characteristics that sometimes enable the corrupt few to create “pathocracies”, which are pathological societies designed and controlled by a small minority to benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else. I ended that post by saying “Don’t for a minute believe that the possession of wealth or success in life makes it less likely that a person is a psychopath. Wealthy successful psychopaths are far more dangerous than the ones who end up in jail for drug-related or other charges. And the most dangerous of all are national leaders with psychopathic tendencies. And for God sake, don’t EVER think that just because the only people who are being abused, tortured, and killed by your government are of some other race, ethnic group, or religion – Muslim, for example – that that means that they (your government) aren’t likely to turn on you next.”

<snip, much more and WELL WORTH READING>

[indepat]

11. Time for change's body of work surely must be the most cogent, compelling,

brilliant, and insightful produced by anyone imo and I doubt if any of this major theses are inaccurate, misses the point, or can be disproved in any meaningful way. :)

[glitch]

12. Agreed. If he puts it all together in a book, I'll buy it. nt

[indepat]

13. I have raised this prospect with him: if I were king, his body of work would be mandatory reading

with a high comprehension required before one is allowed to venture out in society. :)

[glitch]

14. So have I! He can title it "Time for Change" and it must be required reading

Subtitled "The Epidemiology of Fascism in America". :hi: