The War in Iraq costs appr. 5 BILLION a month.....not bad

[mopaul]

That's approximately 60 billion per year, after a while, you're talkin' about some real money. How long can we sustain this disgusting waste of money and humanity?

[LostInAnomie]

1. Just think how much health care that could pay for.

What a waste.

[DebJ]

2. or education . or jobs.

[Cooley Hurd]

3. ...or tsunami relief.

:(

[MSgt213]

9. Funny how it's really hard to find money to pay teachers, provide

good schools and provide education beyond high school for our kids, but when the chips are down we have no problem providing billions to kill our kids. Imagine what would happen if we had a 5 to 10 year war on our schools and mortaged our future to do it. Do you think the return on our investment would be so low that it would be like sending money down a sink hole with no hope of a return?

[DebJ]

11. there is a war on our schools. It is called NCLB

[DebJ]

4. it was said W will ask for up to $100 billion this year for Iraq...but

does that include the monies to be paid in perpetuity to our men now blinded, legless, armless, for their medical care and income? I don't think so. I think that is separate VA funding. So the costs are even higher.

$100,000,000,000 = 1,000,000 more college education funds at $10,000 a piece. Think if we college educated one million more people per year that we could find some scientists and engineers to compete with the rest of the world?

[da_chimperor]

5. Maybe his plan is to run the US government into the ground

and then privatize everything. His corporate cronies can buy everything at fire-sale prices. Halliburton will get the department of energy, Carlyle group gets the DoD, etc. It would certainly fit his 'ownership society' model. Wanna buy stock in the department of homeland security? Now you can! :eyes:

[DebJ]

8. No 'maybes' about it: ownership by the top 5%

[ElsewheresDaughter]

6. i heard $600 billion for iraq war...these 2 articles qoute $500 Billion...

i heard kerry and biden qoute $600 billion cost for iraq by next year, last week during condi's confirmation hearing.

Online NewsHour: The Cost of War -- March 25, 2003... this back in for a significant role in post war Iraq. ... made senators very nervous about those costs and of ... for this current fiscal year of perhaps $400 billion. ...
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june03/budget_3-25.html

Official Projections Underestimate Cost of Iraq War, According to ...File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Your browser may not have a PDF reader available. Google recommends visiting our text version of this document.
... to $500 billion • The funds needed for Iraq’s reconstruction ... Humanitarian assistance, which could have a price tag of ... and a loss of nearly $400 billion in a ...
www.amacad.org/publications/monographs/Iraq_Press.pdf -

[mopaul]

10. all these numbers are so confusing, when does fear factor come on?

i'd rather not think about it.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

14. LOL

[izzie]

7. See 'National Priorities Project' to really get mad.

What could be done in this country.

[ConcernedNonpartisan]

12. How much of it is for REconstruction

and how much is for DEstruction?

[ktowntennesseedem]

13. Comes out to about $2000 every second

if I did the math correctly.

[seemslikeadream]

15. Iraq embassy cost nearly half a billion dollars for last 6 months

:shrug:

Operation Limited Freedom

...

The mission's administrative chief, Stephen A. Browning, who has helped evacuate embassies during his career, acknowledges that his experience in Baghdad has been unique.

"We've never done this. We've always been heading in the other direction," he said. "We're bringing in all these people used to pinstripes into this war zone, giving them color-coordinated helmet and flak jackets and telling them, 'You go be a diplomat.' There's just no model for what we've done."

The reason for taking such risks boils down to this: The political stakes in Iraq are huge. If the Bush administration fails to plant the seeds of democracy here, the damage will not be limited to Iraq but will ripple throughout a region gripped by hatred for the United States.

The diplomatic beachhead here doesn't come cheap. Browning estimated that it cost nearly half a billion dollars to keep the embassy operation going for the last six months of 2004.

Whereas most of the United States' 250-plus missions around the world exude an atmosphere of hushed efficiency, the Baghdad mission feels more like New York's Grand Central station at rush hour, with streams of civilian and uniformed personnel moving through the long, narrow corridors.
more
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m9085&l=i&size=1&hd=0