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Comment by Larry Ross, January 10, 2006

This article shows how Bush's Iraq war is ruinously expensive and very costly for individual taxpayers.
Bush's planned Iran war is apt to be much larger. It could be even more costly than the Iraq war and bankrupt the U.S. until Bush's aggression trigger's a nuclear holocaust.

Then there are the costs of expanding the US global empire further in the middle east and elsewhere in the world, as well as the huge US program to dominate space militarily by stationing weapons in space and creating an anti-missile defence system.

As the US system groans under the expanding financial drain, and Bush's popularity plummets, he and his Administration are apt to become even more vicious and irrational. They will blame others for their folly, and resort more to covert action to create terror and chaos. With US mass media pro-war propaganda help as usual, this will distract Americans and persuade them again, that George Bush is the hero who will protect them against the threat of terrorism.

It worked for the Bush Administration so far. People, Congress and the Democratic opposition accepted and repeated their lies in support of the illegal Iraq war. Even with wide exposure of the lies, they still do and the Iraq war continues and worsens. Most of the population are passive, apathetic or so involved with other things they don't help prevent the looming catastrophe. That makes it very difficult for a sane and good society to prevail.

There's no cause for joy in Bush's mess, potential exposure and fall.
If the Bush Administration precipitates a nuclear holocaust the catastrophe will take all of us with them. People don't realise how small the world has become, and how quickly a nuclear war can destroy our small, fragile planet.

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Cost of Iraq war could top $2 trillion

By Jason Szep, January 10, 2006

BOSTON: The cost of the Iraq war could top $US trillion ($NZ2.91 trillion), far above the White House's pre-war projections, when long-term costs such as lifetime health care for thousands of wounded US soldiers are included, a study said today.

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

They said US taxpayers will be burdened with costs that linger long after US 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 endeavour" 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 US economic growth and health-care bills for treating long-term mental illness suffered by war veterans.

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

Continue.....

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See also:
THE ECONOMIC COSTS OF THE IRAQ WAR:
AN APPRAISAL THREE YEARS AFTER THE BEGINNING OF THE CONFLICT
Linda Bilmes
Kennedy School, Harvard University and
Joseph E. Stiglitz
University Professor, Columbia University