Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard budget expert Linda Bilmes came out with a paper estimating the long-term cost of the Iraq War to be $1-2 TRILLION. They factored in a couple of things the Decider-in-Chief and his cronies neglected to calculate or even ponder: long-term disability payments and health care costs for the 18,000+ physically, emotionally, and psychologically maimed vets who were wounded in the conflict, as well as the potential economic opportunities that were squandered by spending funds in Iraq as opposed to on the domestic front.

President Eisenhower courageously and prophetically warned the American people about the looming threat posed by the military industrial complex decades ago. I'm afraid his warning has gone generally unheeded. I also reflect on a memorable statement he made during a 1963 speech delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors:

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

Pretty relevant to the situation today. Every dollar pissed away in Iraq is one more dollar not being spent here at home or elsewhere on something that might actually pay a real return on investment instead of going into the coffers of Boeing, Raytheon, United Technologies, Lockheed-Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop-Grumman et al., so that James Baker III, the rest of his Carlyle Group buddies and their ilk can live the good life comfortably cloistered from the chaos they help to sow. So much for the so-called "peace dividend" that was supposed to come out of the end of the Cold War. I mean, military spending is going throught the roof with no end in sight. Meanwhile, vets get screwed on the home front and the battlefront because the Pentagon would rather spend a shitload of money on fancy weapons than the chump change needed to keep VA hospitals open, or to give troops in the field some armor for their humvees.

I'm afraid that with the enormous profits they are reaping from the Iraq War and the larger "war on terror," the defense industry is not going to go away quietly into the night. With this kind of money at stake, military contractors will do whatever it takes to perpetuate the Iraq conflict and to help foment a few new ones.

Give me liberty or give me debt... A new slogan for the Bush Administration's global war on terror?

Not knowable, my ass. Literally thousands of people were estimating the ultimate cost of this "war" at one trillion dollars, myself included, and I know almost nothing about what it takes to run an army. At this point I bet it even exceeds that number, when you add in the cost of taking care of the wounded soldiers for the rest of their lives. Lies, lies, and more lies, is what we get from Bush and Cheney, and I pray to god someday these murderous thugs will be held accountable for their crimes against humanity. And anyone who voted for Bush shares at least some of the responsibility for this fiasco, because the evidence was there for all the world to see in 2000, and even more so in 2004, that he was incapable of doing the job.

"But the CRS says that even assuming substantial troop drawdowns in the near future, the cost of the two wars could exceed $800 billion by 2016."

If it's expected to cost $500 billion by this time next year, after over four years of fighting, why only an additional $800 billion in another nine years, even with "substantial" troop drawdowns.

But all the figures quoted in this piece are far short of the ultimate costs, even if all the troops were to be brought home tomorrow. The costs of caring for all the injured veterans, many with lifetime disablements, will be in the trillions of dollars. Then there are the interest costs on all the money borrowed to wage it, eventually more than the principal amount. And who knows how many billions the Bushies are hiding from public view.

Sorry I said 9.5 billion, but than what are a paltry 200 000 000.

Billions you said? For the War in Irak after Mission accomplished in 2003? What would that buy in healthcare for Americas poor? Or what could be done in the educational system? But than who cares? The goverment or the president and Co? Never mind, we can print even more money. Other countries had and have inflations, why not the US.Afterall China will take on more of our obligations until they own the country by calling in the massive debt. In the meantime we have to fight terrorism, there was always some of it, but we succeeded afteerall to get them out of the woodwork by invading Iraq. We brung them de-mocracy, they elected an assembly and formed a cabinet. Never mind that it is located in sone area called the Green Zone after the color of the prophets flag and strongly fortified and protected by US troops the favored target of , lets call them insurgents. Sounds better that way.We wont cut and run. No Sir, it goes a against the deciders pride, afterall he sits well protected in the White House when he does not aviate on Airforce One or chops wood on his ranch in Texas.While the Dollars disappear in a huge swamp of uncertainty.All while the economy is rolling and the Halliburton, Boeings etc.etc make oddles of dough, being printed in ever growing quantities! Good bless America, as our beloved leader usually ends his speeches.

I think you'll find there's a very good chance that the increased Iraqi oil revenues will in fact be able to finance the war. That is the American taxpayer shouldn't expect to see any great monetary expenditures.

And with on-the-spot analysis like that, you can see why Dear Leader appointed me to head the World Bank; I'm a wizard with numbers, and I have the amazing ability to believe absolutely anything, no matter how untrue!

Try the Kool Aid. It's wonderful!

Sincerely,

Paul Wolfowitz