Tuesday, January 10

Hello, can anybody hear me?

The cost of the Iraq war could top $US 2 trillion after factoring in long-term health care for wounded US veterans, rebuilding a worn-down military and accounting for other unforeseen bills and economic losses, according to a new analysis.
The figure is more than four times what the war was expected to cost taking in this year — about $US 500 billion, according to congressional budget data.
The estimate by Nobel Prize-winning Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes far exceeds projections made by the Bush Administration.

For example, the study attributes a portion of the increase in oil prices to instability in the Middle East caused by the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and sparked a bloody insurgency. It estimates that the shock to the oil industry has already added at least $25 billion to the price tag of the conflict - and so on and so on...
It really is a disaster this war. No one can tell me anymore that anybody gained anything from this. And the long term costs of life and resources probably exceed any price tag even a smart Nobel price winner can ever pin down.

2 comments:

Gary said...

And who is getting the trillion dollar transfer - whose pockets are going to be fat? Weapons manufacturers, pharma/web, petrochemical, financiers and...friends of King George II.

And whose pockets will it come out of? All the taxpayers and working people of American... for say, about 4 generations.

Could have given every Iraqi a car, a house, a job and paid Saddam to go to the moon to live!

Zee said...

Good point Gary!