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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (737112)	4/18/2006 6:31:12 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

OK, Sonny... just which analysis of projected final total costs for Iraq War (or 'Iraq/Afghanistan War') is it that you wish to dig into? A few quick points of agreement first: A) The U.S. is currently spending around $6 billion a month on Iraq. B) To date, expenditures have totaled an estimated $320 billion, although a supplemental bill for more is now working its way through Congress. The bill headed for the Senate floor currently budgets $106.5 billion in additional spending.... Now, three different projections of estimated final costs: Study #1) --- A study by the Congressional Budget Office forecast an additional $225 billion in direct spending over the next 10 years, [note: above and beyond the $320 Billion already spent...] assuming troop levels fall to 50,000 in a few years. Study #2) --- "Taken together, it is quite possible that the United States will ultimately spend more on U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan than it did on the Korean War ($455 billion) or the Vietnam War ($650 billion)," according to a report by Steven Kosiak, a budget analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.. >>>>>> (SPECIAL NOTE: breaking out the expenditures for 'rebuilding' in just Iraq --- as has been recently reported in numerous media --- and the US is just now reaching the level of spending that we allocated to Germany after WW II (in real terms) --- about $49 Billion in current dollars. That is ALREADY twice what was spent on rebuilding in Japan after WW II.)<<<<<<<<< Study #3) --- A third study by Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, estimated the total cost for the Iraq/Afghanistan War by the time it is all over to be in the range of $750 billion to $1.2 trillion. A big part of that, he says, is the continuing cost of health-care for the more than 17,000 soldiers wounded in the Iraq conflict. (And, of course, interest upon the sovereign debt issued to finance war operations....)