Seriously, that is nation-changing money! What do you think that money should have been spent on?


http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-01-10T010445Z_01_N09173892_RTRIDST_0_IRAQ-COST.XML

BOSTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The cost of the Iraq war could top $2 trillion, far above the White House's pre-war projections, when long-term costs such as lifetime health care for thousands of wounded U.S. soldiers are included, a study said on Monday.

Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes included in their study disability payments for the 16,000 wounded U.S. soldiers, about 20 percent of whom suffer serious brain or spinal injuries.

They said U.S. taxpayers will be burdened with costs that linger long after U.S. troops withdraw.

"Even taking a conservative approach, we have been surprised at how large they are," said the study, referring to total war costs. "We can state, with some degree of confidence, that they exceed a trillion dollars."

Before the invasion, then-White House budget director Mitch Daniels predicted Iraq would be "an affordable endeavor" and rejected an estimate by then-White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey of total Iraq war costs at $100 billion to $200 billion as "very, very high."

Unforeseen costs include recruiting to replenish a military drained by multiple tours of duty, slower long-term U.S. economic growth and health-care bills for treating long-term mental illness suffered by war veterans.

They said about 30 percent of U.S. troops had developed mental-health problems within three to four months of returning from Iraq as of July 2005, citing Army statistics.

Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 and has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, and Bilmes based their projections partly on past wars and included the economic cost of higher oil prices, a bigger U.S. budget deficit and greater global insecurity caused by the Iraq war.

They said a portion of the rise in oil prices -- about 20 percent of the $25 a barrel gain in oil prices since the war began -- could be attributed directly to the conflict and that this had already cost the United States about $25 billion.

"Americans are, in a sense, poorer by that amount," they said, describing that estimate as conservative.

The projection of a total cost of $2 trillion assumes U.S. troops stay in Iraq until 2010 but with steadily declining numbers each year. They projected the number of troops there in 2006 at about 136,000. Currently, the United States has 153,000 troops in Iraq.

HIGHER COSTS

Marine Corps Lt. Col. Roseann Lynch, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said on Monday that the Iraq war was costing the United States $4.5 billion monthly in military "operating costs" not including procurement of new weapons and equipment.

Lynch said the war in Iraq had cost $173 billion to date.

Another unforeseen cost, the study said, is the loss to the U.S. economy from injured veterans who cannot contribute as productively as they otherwise would and costs related to American civilian contractors and journalists killed in Iraq.

Death benefits to military families and bonuses paid to soldiers to re-enlist and to sign up new recruits are additional long-term costs, it said.

Stiglitz was an adviser to U.S. President Bill Clinton and also served as chief economist at the World Bank. (Additional reporting by Charles Aldinger in Washington)

Pay down the deficit. You know -- the one that'll increase by about $2 trillion.

Hehe! Did we have one of those under big-bad Clinton?

Even HOWARD STERN would have been a better president than this clueless monkey we've got in the white house.

why isnt their a "give it to me" button

Because everything belongs to the government, silly. You don't think that's your money, do you?

B

Is that who FICA is? Always wanted to meet that bastard and find out why he/she gets so much of what little I make.

__________________
Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

FICA is BOHICA's sister.

B

glad no morons actually selected having the war here on OUR soil yet....

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

what war? what are you talking about.. BHD your crazy..

the war with AlQueda......there are some people who would rather have it here than in Iraq and Afganistan....however most of them live in the western USA far from any of the target areas.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I'd invest in new tanks and maybe some new subs. The F22 anf F35 are already so much better then everything else.

We have historicaly have always had small standing army in this country. It would be nice to expand it.

What about building a pair of new gigantic battleships? That would be so cool, if any country acts up park those suckers off their coast and they will fall in line. If not a 16in or 18in shell can make some amazing sounds.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

It really amazes me (and I know this thread is still very young) that half (if you use this places as a sample) of the population supports this war. It just dumbnifies me!

It really amazes me (and I know this thread is still very young) that half (if you use this places as a sample) of the population fails to support this war. It just dumbnifies me!

B

Your poll should have included an option for "Fighting Terror." I would prefer that option to what W is doing, which is growing terror.