The Iraq Invasion costs WHAT?

[Karmageddon]

The Iraq Invasion costs WHAT?
Written by Wally
12/14/2005

http://www.dubyad40.com/html/wally/wally.shtml

According to the the AP, "the Pentagon is in the early stages of drafting a wartime request for up to $100 billion more for Iraq and Afghanistan, lawmakers say, a figure that would push spending related to the wars toward a staggering half-trillion dollars."

That's Five Hundred Billion dollars ($500,000,000,000.00) spent to blow the shit out of a back-asswards country that wasn't even a threat to it's next-door neighbors, to kick out a tyrannical leader who didn't have enough authority over his own damned country to fly planes over 2/3 of it (the north and south "no-fly zones" were strictly off limits to Iraqi aircraft, enforced by U.S. fighter jets). This man, they say, who couldn't even defend his own country, was a threat to the United States of America, the most militarily and economically powerful nation in the history of the world. And people BELIEVED that shit?? Anyway, that's a different argument. But man, it still amazes me just how frikking stupid people can be.

Back to my point, $500,000,000,000.00
That's an impressive number.

Almost unimaginable to most people, including me, so let's do a little exercise in perspective:

The bill for the Iraq invasion: 500 Billion
World population (approx): 6 billion
U.S. population: 295 million


The cost of the invasion per person comes to:

About $80 each for every man, women, and child on the planet.

In nations like Burundi, that is a year's wages for the average adult.
There are 59 countries in the world where this is more than a month's wages for the average adult.
Look here for details


But, the whole world isn't footing the bill for this. It's strictly an American fiasco, so let's see what that comes to.

Cost of invasion per American:
$1695 for every man, woman, and child.
That's $6776 for a family of four.

What could you and your family do with 7 grand besides blow it up and mop up blood with it?

What could America do with the $195 million a day that this occupation is costing us? Here are a whole bunch of ideas. Any of these are good. Hell, in my opinion, we'd be better off, as a nation, if instead of using it for war, we just made a big pile of dollar bills and burned it for heat.

[Bridget Burke]

1. But we "can't afford" to fix NOLA.

We can't afford to offer national health care.

We can't afford to help our schools....

[liberal N proud]

3. But we can afford to build bombs

[theHandpuppet]

21. Yeah, I heard some reporter just this morning...

... saying that it would cost 30 billion to repair/upgrade the levee infrastructure in NOLA, and they said this as if it was such AN ASTONISHING AMOUNT! OMG -- 30 billion dollars! What an idiot! What's 30 billion? One day more in Iraq?

[babylonsister]

2. K & Nom. in total disgust. nt

[demgurl]

4. Do I not remember...

somewhere in the back of my feeble little mind, that Bushco originally said that this war would be all paid for by Iraqi's and all their wonderful oil money? Am I dreaming that? Hubby says I am right but I can not seem to google it and get what I need. I thought one of the talking points was that it would not cost us a dime. Am I wrong?

demgurl

[Viva_La_Revolution]

11. Yes...

Before the war, US officials engaged in a delicate balancing act. They sought to counter the pervasive belief in the Middle East and Europe that the war was all about oil, while vaguely telling the US taxpayer not to worry about the cost.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0116-10.htm

[demgurl]

16. Viva, thanks.

I guess I was not using the right google words. Actually, so many hits came up I got distressed about sifting through each and every one of them. Can these folks ever tell the truth?

demgurl

[satya]

12. More quotes about the (alleged) cost of the war

http://www.house.gov/schakowsky/iraqquotes_web.htm

[demgurl]

17. satya, you rock.

Thank you very much for the link.

demgurl

[satya]

23. Thanks to Rep. Schakowsky & staff for compiling this list! They rock!!! nt

[Karmageddon]

18. Great link satya. Thanks. I bookmarked it for future debate ammo.

[MellowOne]

5. Or we could have stayed home

And spent that money on industries and factories to get our unemployed Americans back to work.

[Swede]

6. One way of understanding a billion versus a million

I heard this as a kid. If you give a man a million dollars and told him to spend a $1000 per day,he would run out of money in just over 3 years. If you gave him a billion dollars to spend $1000 per day he would run out in over 3000 years.

[Festivito]

13. Also, a billion is about $4 per American, or about half a movie.

When some federal program costs two billion a year, think of it as being as much good for you as a movie per year.

Since a lot of those 295 million Americans are children and elderly, 250 million is not a bad estimator.

A tangible perspective.

The war cost to exceed $2,000 per American worker -- PLUS BLOOD. That's a lot of movies.

[Karmageddon]

19. "Plus Blood" - which is WAY more important than money.

No amount of money can bring back a loved one or patch up a broken family. The lives lost and damaged (by physical and emotional trauma) is the greatest tragedy of all. The lives of our soldiers, the lives of Iraqi civilians, the lives of families of the dead and wounded on all sides, the lives of Iraqi resistance fighters (whether we like it or not, they see themself as defending their country against foreign invaders - I'd be fighting if someone attacked my country too, even though I think our president is a tyrant and a criminal).

There is no question that the greatest cost is in blood, not dollars. The blood of the dead, and the blood of all those who could be lifted out of poverty, hunger, desperation, and illness with all the freaking money we're literally blowing away in Iraq.


The focus on the money aspect was not meant to detract from the bloodshed. It was more of an attempt to appeal to republican thinking. An appeal to how it impacts their wallet, since that's what they care about most. Just a little ammo to toss at you republican brother in law at holiday gatherings when discussing the war.

[BlueEyedSon]

7. It ain't over yet either. NYT estimate is $1.3TRILLION (see attached)

"...if the American military presence in the region lasts another five years, the total outlay for the war could stretch to more than $1.3 trillion, or $11,300 for every household in the United States."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/20/opinion/20bilmes.html?ex=1282190400&en=e6842bf28ce308c3&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

[Bluerthanblue]

8. Great demonstration for kids and folks like me- who

can't concieve of numbers that large is something i read within the last few days- and i can't remember where darn it!!-

If we laid $1 dollar bills end to end, and encircled the earth at the equator, we could go around the earth 1950 times- with those bills, to equal the ammount of money this Iraqi disaster costs, in monetary terms.

My 12yr old was blown away with the concept of this- almost as much as i was-

But more than that is the 'more or less 30,000 lives'- (MUCH MORE "i know it was a budget it had numbers in it" bush. Not to mention the thousands of lives ended and forever wounded by the people he used to lead the charge-.....

while we cut services to the least among us- and blame the victims of natural disasters for thier plight-

oh the irony, - if it weren't so tragicly true, it would make a great SNL skit.

[Johonny]

9. Remember we couldn't

sign Koyoto because the president said it would "cost" 500 million. What a joke.

[MrMonk]

10. The Invasion hardly cost anything

compared to what we're spending on the Occupation.

[coalition_unwilling]

14. The war costs $9 million per hour, by my calcuation

[Uncle Joe]

15. It's like an elephant being afraid of a mouse.

The more I think about it, the elephant is the perfect symbol for the Repubs.

[butterfly77]

20. This info should be posted where some freepers can read it...

I would if I knew how, to set up the page and links. Maybe some who won't listen to talk will read and think about this.

[Stephanie]

22. What about the interest?

Because surely he spend the $500B on credit. What's the interest?