Iraq War Ends With A $4 Trillion IOU
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dick.
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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The nine-year-old Iraq war has come to an official end, but paying for it will continue for decades until U.S. taxpayers have shelled out an estimated $4 trillion.
Over a 50-year period, that comes to $80 billion annually.
Although that only represents about 1% of nation’s gross domestic product, it’s more than half of the national budget deficit. It’s also roughly equal to what the U.S. spends on the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency combined each year.
Near the start of the war, the U.S. Defense Department estimated it would cost $50 billion to $80 billion. White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey was dismissed in 2002 after suggesting the price of invading and occupying Iraq could reach $200 billion.
“The direct costs for the war were about $800 billion, but the indirect costs, the costs you can’t easily see, that payoff will outlast you and me,” said Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at American Progress, a Washington, D.C. think tank, and a former assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan.
Those costs include interest payments on the billions borrowed to fund the war; the cost of maintaining military bases in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain to defend Iraq or reoccupy the country if the Baghdad government unravels; and the expense of using private security contractors to protect U.S. property in the country and to train Iraqi forces.
Caring for veterans, more than 2 million of them, could alone reach $1 trillion, according to Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, in Congressional testimony in July.
Other experts said that was too conservative and anticipate twice that amount. The advance in medical technology has helped more soldiers survive battlefield injuries, but followup care can often last a lifetime and be costly.
More than 32,000 soldiers were wounded in Iraq, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Add in Afghanistan and that number jumps to 47,000.
Altogether, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost the U.S. between $4 trillion and $6 trillion, more than half of which would be due to the fighting in Iraq, said Neta Crawford, a political science professor at Brown University.
This is pretty good:
PHOTO OF THE DAY - Modern Warfare
Feb 2, 2013 at 3:58 PM
Reader Comments (16)
Secondly, the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency could all be abolished..
Thirdly, abolish the DEA, DOE, FDA, NLRB, NOAA, The Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Civil Service Labor unions and eliminate all congressional benefits not readily available to the ordinary private taxpayer..
Did the Iraqis ask America to invade or Israhell whored out America to invade? But again I do believe one of Saddam's quotes" When America Invades Iraq it will be the beginning of the end of America economically speaking !
How about the Chinese and Russians come and 'appropriate' your house and rape your wife?
I distinctly remember when asked under oath in front of Congress what the upcoming war would cost and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield replied "$20 billion for the first year, $20 billion for the second year and if there is a third year....(pause, Rumsfield turns around and looks at his number cruncher accountant, nods his head and then says) "if there's a third year $21 billion". Now lets suppose he told the truth and blurted out "the war with Iraq will cost the United States 4 Trillion dollars"...do you think any Congressman would have agreed to sending us to war?
Obama, like I mentioned above in December of 2011, behaves as if he was lobotomized. See the 'This is Your Life, Francis Farmer' video on Youtube and see the flat line 'everything is O.K.' interview. In the early 1960s, a parent could have their child lobotomized in California. Obama uses the exact same 'Sinatraesque suave and debonaire' delivery EVERY TIME he gives a speech. Then he lies and reverses policies for his controllers on command. Project Monarch. Homework time.