Wanna know how much the Iraq Occupation is going to cost in 2009?

[genie_weenie]

Too Bad! http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=34104">Gates isn't going to tell you. Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyaaaaaaaaah!

Instead the War Mongers will claim the DoD budget is only http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11663">515.4 BILLION.

Golly, I'm sure glad we have a war too help our economy. I can not for the life of me think of any better use of a TRILLION dollars then blowing up people over there,

Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there
We'll be over, we're coming over
And we won't come back till it's over, over there

HURRAH AMERICA!!! YES!

[whistle]

1. War is a racket

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

[genie_weenie]

2. Oh you. You are a lying liar, who lies like a loony liar from Liartown!

http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/hist_texts/warhealthstate1918.html">War is the Health of the State! And America has http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=640980">da best Healthcare in the world!

[genie_weenie]

3. Oh oh oh oh I totally have to add this! O.M.G.

Think Progress has this fer sure kewl video with this guy Hon (short for Honey?) Paulson stating the amount money needed for Iraq is an http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/05/paulson-iraq-budget/">Unknowable Amount.

Golly, this super now the evil antiwar types won't be able to point to the amount of money being spent on death and destruction as too much because it's unknowable. Take that Antiwarriors!

[leftchick]

4. Chalmers Johnson on DoD spending.....

conservatively $1.1 Trillion for our wars and other miscellaneous stuff....

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JA24Ak04.html

<snip>

In discussing the fiscal 2008 defense budget, as released to the press on February 7, 2007, I have been guided by two experienced and reliable analysts: William D Hartung of the New America Foundation's Arms and Security Initiative and Fred Kaplan, defense correspondent for Slate.org. They agree that the Department of Defense requested $481.4 billion for salaries, operations (except in Iraq and Afghanistan), and equipment.

They also agree on a figure of $141.7 billion for the "supplemental" budget to fight the global "war on terror" - that is, the two on-going wars that the general public may think are actually covered by the basic Pentagon budget. The Department of Defense also asked for an extra $93.4 billion to pay for hitherto unmentioned war costs in the remainder of 2007 and, most creatively, an additional "allowance" (a new term in defense budget documents) of $50 billion to be charged to fiscal year 2009. This comes to a total spending request by the Department of Defense of $766.5 billion.

But there is much more. In an attempt to disguise the true size of the American military empire, the government has long hidden major military-related expenditures in departments other than Defense. For example, $23.4 billion for the Department of Energy goes toward developing and maintaining nuclear warheads; and $25.3 billion in the Department of State budget is spent on foreign military assistance (primarily for Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Republic, Egypt, and Pakistan).

Another $1.03 billion outside the official Department of Defense budget is now needed for recruitment and reenlistment incentives for the overstretched US military itself, up from a mere $174 million in 2003, the year the war in Iraq began. The Department of Veterans Affairs currently gets at least $75.7 billion, 50% of which goes for the long-term care of the grievously injured among the at least 28,870 soldiers so far wounded in Iraq and another 1,708 in Afghanistan. The amount is universally derided as inadequate. Another $46.4 billion goes to the Department of Homeland Security.

Missing as well from this compilation is $1.9 billion to the Department of Justice for the paramilitary activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; $38.5 billion to the Department of the Treasury for the Military Retirement Fund; $7.6 billion for the military-related activities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and well over $200 billion in interest for past debt-financed defense outlays. This brings US spending for its military establishment during the current fiscal year (2008), conservatively calculated, to at least $1.1 trillion.

[genie_weenie]

5. Oh pish tosh!

It can't possibly be that much I mean... after all... you're going to get... umm... 600 in the mail... this summer. And just think when people go online and buy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqM4tKPDlR8">Blackwater gear that's pumping much needed money into the economy.

Edit: I must edit out my line! No, it would have worked!

[leftchick]

6. nope

'We' get 1300.00 to pay off some bills.

nice try. You better throw that line back in. ;)

[genie_weenie]

7. Hiya! Kicking this back up via the Crane Technique...