Quote :

"A new study by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz from Columbia University and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes shows that the price tag for the war, including the cost of caring for thousands of wounded and ill veterans, will easily surpass $1 trillion -- and could reach as much as $2 trillion when all is said and done."

http://salon.com/news/feature/2006/01/11/iraq_cost/

The war supporters are right -- this is no Vietnam. Vietnam was a hell of a lot cheaper.

1/11/2006 12:22:35 PM

Was it? I didn't see a price tag for Nam anywhere in there.

1/11/2006 12:23:59 PM

^IIRC Vietnam came to something on the order of $350 billion, adjusted for inflation.

1/11/2006 12:30:21 PM

Why do you think the national debt has gone from around 4 trillon to over 8 trillion under 5 years of Bush?

1/11/2006 12:30:43 PM

maybe if we cut military funding and take away armor from more of our soldiers we could be a little more fiscally jewish in the war

1/11/2006 12:36:45 PM

^^It could well be, but given the number of wounded and ill veterans Nam left behind, I'd suspect that either they weren't factored into that figure, or we've upped our benefits since then.

That said, I think the big difference in price between the wars is just the cost of the weapons -- cruise missiles and B-2 flights around the world are more expensive than squads of marines on patrol, but they are safer.

1/11/2006 12:37:19 PM

Easy, medicare drug coverage and a national highway bill about 10 times larger than its cousin of only 6 years ago.

1/11/2006 12:38:43 PM

Quote :

"U.S. Nears Debt Limit, Could Default on Bills By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP AP Treasury Secretary John Snow estimates that the government will bump into the statutory debt limit of $8.18 trillion in February. WASHINGTON (Dec. 29) - Treasury Secretary John Snow on Thursday said the United States could face the prospect of not being able to pay its bills early next year unless Congress raises the government's borrowing authority, now capped at $8.18 trillion. Snow, in a letter to lawmakers, estimated that the government is expected to bump into the statutory debt limit around the middle of February."

http://articles.news.aol.com/business/article.adp?id=20051229171309990007&cid=403

We're going to debtors' prison.

1/11/2006 12:40:43 PM

does that mean Georgia gets its old job back?

[Edited on January 11, 2006 at 12:51 PM. Reason : ']

1/11/2006 12:50:56 PM

Quote :

"Vietnam was a hell of a lot cheaper."

58,184 dead
304,704 wounded

Yeah, Vietnam was a hell of a lot cheaper.

1/11/2006 1:02:18 PM

Quote :

"Vietnam was a hell of a lot cheaper"

Iraq would be a lot cheaper if we (1) just dropped cheap, unguided munitions everywhere and (2) split as soon as we overthrew Saddam Hussein and verified no WMD, and without pouring tons of money in there to unfuck the place.

but no reasonable person would argue for that approach

Quote :

"Why do you think the national debt has gone from around 4 trillon to over 8 trillion under 5 years of Bush?"

several reasons

none of them good, save the tax cuts



and again, why do you care, JerryGarcia? I don't give a rat's ass how Australians spend their money.

[Edited on January 11, 2006 at 2:14 PM. Reason : P.S.--we obviously invaded them for oil so we could save a bunch of money]

1/11/2006 2:10:21 PM

Quote :

"theDuke866: and again, why do you care, JerryGarcia? I don't give a rat's ass how Australians spend their money."

Should have been the first line of your post...

1/11/2006 3:24:31 PM

^^

Why do I care? Well, Schadenfreude for a start. It's curiously pleasant to watch an imperialist superpower spends itself into penury as it wages an unwinnable war of conquest. I imagine that many who watched the Soviet Union's debacle in Afghanistan 25 years ago felt the same.

Aside from that, it's just an astounding amount of money -- especially for a country that already spends far more than it takes in.

1/11/2006 8:05:40 PM

well, for what it's worth, i'm with you on the 2nd half of that last post

1/12/2006 12:56:31 AM

Someone's going to eventually have to pay that.

1/12/2006 9:25:15 AM

since i hear we're doing it for our children's future, they might as well pay for it, too

1/12/2006 9:29:06 AM

^ you dont think a US ally in the middle east would be beneficial in the future? Not to mention a country with as much oil as Iraq.

1/12/2006 9:48:06 AM

sure

that's why our children gonna help us pay for it

[Edited on January 12, 2006 at 9:57 AM. Reason : pronoun]

1/12/2006 9:54:18 AM

or it may pay us back in the long run? Just a thought.

1/12/2006 10:06:23 AM

hopefully we'll get a return investment before Iran nukes the joint

1/12/2006 10:20:42 AM

Quote :

"Aside from that, it's just an astounding amount of money -- especially for a country that already spends far more than it takes in."

You forget why that is. The federal government in this country only consumes 15% of the nation's GDP. So, of course it looks like a lot of money. But if we raised taxes to a level common in Europe or Canada we could pay off the entire debt in one or two years.

Or national debt only seems huge because you are forgetting the scale of this country. Everything we do is huge. Our federal government, as small as it is compared to the economy at large, raises more in taxes than the whole Chinese Gross National Product.

1/12/2006 10:23:07 AM

Quote :

"Everything we do is huge. "

Still, it's a legitimate question. Why spend $2 Trillion for the War in Iraq when we could use the funds to make Social Security solvent, reduce the tax burden on the citizenry, cut our debt, or just build a giant golden statue of George W. Bush on the front lawn of the White House?

1/12/2006 10:59:04 AM

medical costs are just as bad. If we did like canada and regulated the price of drugs medicare and other programs wouldn't cost 1/10th as much.

1/12/2006 11:01:03 AM

Quote :

"Not to mention a country with as much oil as Iraq"

if my kids are buying cars that still run on oil

i'll be one pissed off citizen

i tell ya that

1/12/2006 11:10:10 AM

By the time your kids drive cars (assuming 16 years + another year to have them), we will hopefully have already gotten our investment back.

1/12/2006 11:18:51 AM

Where are the flying cars we were promised in the 80's?

1/13/2006 11:39:25 AM

Could this thread get any dumber? I'm guessing not.

1/13/2006 11:54:00 AM

Quote :

"bigun20: ^ you dont think a US ally in the middle east would be beneficial in the future?"

How's this one working out for us?

Quote :

"bigun20: Not to mention a country with as much oil as Iraq."

If only we had an extremely close ally with as much oil as Iraq...



I hear these guys are available. And look! They're having their own little Reagan revolution going on right now, too! They'll be closer than ever now.

[Edited on January 13, 2006 at 12:24 PM. Reason : ...]

1/13/2006 12:24:09 PM