Iraq War Costs Now Exceed Vietnam's

[peace4all]

Iraq War Costs Now Exceed Vietnam's

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0901-02.htm

by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Treasury is paying out more each month to sustain the war in Iraq than it did during the Vietnam War, according to a new report that calls the ongoing conflict "the most expensive military effort in the last 60 years".

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If the $204 billion appropriated for the war so far had been used instead for social programs...it could have paid for the health care of the more than 46 million citizens ... the hiring of 3.5 million elementary school teachers, or the construction of affordable housing units for nearly two million people.

Report: "The Iraq Quagmire"

The 84-page report, "The Iraq Quagmire: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War and the Case for Bringing the Troops Home", says that the total bill for the war in Iraq has come to some 204 billion dollars, or an average of 727 dollars per U.S. citizen, not counting an additional 45 billion dollars which is currently pending before Congress.

The report, which comes as Congress braces itself for the multi-billion costs of cleaning up after the unprecedented devastation inflicted this week on New Orleans and the broader Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina, also does not include at least another 25-billion-dollar request that the Pentagon is believed to be preparing to sustain operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next year.

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[G_j]

1. 727 dollars per U.S. citizen

"redemptive violence" ain't cheap