Studies: Iraq costs US $12B per month

[Barrett808]

Source: Associated Press

Studies: Iraq costs US $12B per month
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent

The flow of blood may be ebbing, but the flood of money into the Iraq war is steadily rising, new analyses show. In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the "burn" rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and co-author Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book.

Beyond 2008, working with "best-case" and "realistic-moderate" scenarios, they project the Iraq and Afghan wars, including long-term U.S. military occupations of those countries, will cost the U.S. budget between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion — or more — by 2017.

Interest on money borrowed to pay those costs could alone add $816 billion to that bottom line, they say.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has done its own projections and comes in lower, forecasting a cumulative cost by 2017 of $1.2 trillion to $1.7 trillion for the two wars, with Iraq generally accounting for three-quarters of the costs.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080309/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_war_costs

[shraby]

1. And the war profiteers just stand over there

with their catchers mitts on.

[GreenTea]

2. Where's all that money going to....certainly not to the soldiers....but here's where....

U.S. Corporate Contracts in Iraq (Partial List)

Halliburton and Kellogg,
Brown and Root:
Bechtel
Dyncorp:
Flour Corporation:
Perini Corp:
Gereral Electric:
Stevedoring Services of American:
Blackwater:
Skylink Air and Logistic Support USA:
Louis Berger Group:
Worldcom:
Research Triangle Institute:
Creative Association Int. Inc.:
AMEC:
Parsons Corporation of Pasadena, CA ($5.3 billion); Fluor Corporation of Aliso Viejo, CA ($3.75 billion); Washington Group International of Boise, ID ($3.1 billion); Shaw Group of Baton Rouge, LA ($3 billion); and Contrack International, Inc. of Arlington, VA ($2.3 billion).

[LuckyLib]

3. On September 10, 2001, if a member of Congress had asked for $12B a MONTH for health care or

education, the answer would have been, "Ha! Where on earth would we get that kind of money?" Where on earth, indeed. Criminals. War criminals. Each and every member of BushCO and the corporate horses they're riding.

:grr:

edited to add: a MONTH!

[SpiralHawk]

4. Meanwhile, republicons flush America's economy down the crapper...

Thanks a pantload, republicons...

[dipsydoodle]

5. by 2017

wouldn't attach too much importance to that figure. Oil will have switched to trading in a different currency well before then and with the collapse of petrodollar recycling the necessary money will no longer be able to printed, unbacked, as though there's no tomorrow.

[Deny and Shred]

6. $12 Billion is a conservative estimate, once inflation is factored in.

Oh, these Neocons know what they are doing. Starve the budget so liberal agendas can't be pursued, leave the next Dem Prez so big a Sh*t sandwich that he/she will spend 80% of their energy undoing Neocon policies, put the military in such a awkward situation that from Day One - the Dem Prez must have to make tougher decisions than the NeoHawk Prez ever did.
Both Bushes had wars of choice, and left their predecessors with a bag to hold, and BlackHawkDowns to try to unwind.

Once we start compounding the interest, factor in trade imbalances, watch as the dollar plummets (ever faster if oil becomes priced in a currency other than dollars,) that $12 billion will jump right quick.


Yo SpiralHawk, I've noticed you are commenting on just about every article upon which I click...seems our topics of interest overlap. Either that or you comment on almost everything (which I doubt.) Good to know. I dig your images.

[ConcernedCanuk]

7. US wannabe warriors sitting at home enjoying the carnage

.
.
.

Well, just kiss your lifestyle good-bye.

"Empires" don't work.

Get it?

[akbacchus_BC]

8. Sorry, did Iraq ask America to invade and occupy it? Iraqis ....

are not better off, it is the military industrial complex that is reaping the money. What kind of post is this? Guess am still waiting for the Iraqis to thank America and its cohorts for liberating them. Posts like this makes me want to puke!