A Costly War
Bush's war in Iraq was never supposed to be expensive. The Bush regime suggested numbers of $50 billion to $60 billion. Lawrence Lindsey, the president's chief economic adviser, was promptly fired for saying the war would cost $100 billion to $200 billion.
Iraqi oil revenues were supposed to pay for the war. Former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Congress that Iraq was: "a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." Bush was wrong about the weapons of mass destruction and totally wrong about the cost of the war.
Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and Linda Bilmes estimated that the "true costs" of the war will eventually be more than $1 trillion, and possibly more than $2 trillion. Their study includes both direct and indirect costs of the war, which our nation will have to shoulder for generations.
Cost include disability payments to veterans over the course of their lifetimes, the cost of replacing military equipment and munitions, the cost of medical treatment for returning Iraqi war veterans, particularly the 9,000 veterans with brain, spinal, amputation and other serious injuries, as well as, the cost of the interest on the money that our government has borrowed from oppressive regimes to finance the war.
The Defense Department expenditures including significantly higher recruitment costs, such as nearly doubling the number of recruiters, paying recruitment bonuses of up to $40,000 for new enlistees and paying special bonuses and other benefits, up to $150,000 for current Special Forces troops that re-enlist.
Bush has made it clear that whatever the cost, our military will not leave Iraq. Presently, this premeditated, imperialistic war, which had no connection to 9/11 is costing $8 billion a month, $96 billion a year. Most importantly, 2,610 Americans have been killed and 19,511 wounded.
Dr. Michael O’Leary, Columbia County’s Commissioner of Mental Hygiene points out: “The true cost can barely be determined since loss and cost have ripple effects such as the impact on the children of vets whose parents return disabled with traumatic brain injury,amputation or emotional disturbance. Presently not-for-profits, for-profits, religious-based and state revenues are being used to address some of the needs of the returning soldiers and their families.”
Iraqi oil revenues were supposed to pay for the war. Former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Congress that Iraq was: "a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." Bush was wrong about the weapons of mass destruction and totally wrong about the cost of the war.
Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and Linda Bilmes estimated that the "true costs" of the war will eventually be more than $1 trillion, and possibly more than $2 trillion. Their study includes both direct and indirect costs of the war, which our nation will have to shoulder for generations.
Cost include disability payments to veterans over the course of their lifetimes, the cost of replacing military equipment and munitions, the cost of medical treatment for returning Iraqi war veterans, particularly the 9,000 veterans with brain, spinal, amputation and other serious injuries, as well as, the cost of the interest on the money that our government has borrowed from oppressive regimes to finance the war.
The Defense Department expenditures including significantly higher recruitment costs, such as nearly doubling the number of recruiters, paying recruitment bonuses of up to $40,000 for new enlistees and paying special bonuses and other benefits, up to $150,000 for current Special Forces troops that re-enlist.
Bush has made it clear that whatever the cost, our military will not leave Iraq. Presently, this premeditated, imperialistic war, which had no connection to 9/11 is costing $8 billion a month, $96 billion a year. Most importantly, 2,610 Americans have been killed and 19,511 wounded.
Dr. Michael O’Leary, Columbia County’s Commissioner of Mental Hygiene points out: “The true cost can barely be determined since loss and cost have ripple effects such as the impact on the children of vets whose parents return disabled with traumatic brain injury,amputation or emotional disturbance. Presently not-for-profits, for-profits, religious-based and state revenues are being used to address some of the needs of the returning soldiers and their families.”
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