Remember when President Bush’s chief economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, said back in 2003 that the Iraq war would cost from $100 billion to $200 billion? For that frank appraisal, he was fired.
The Bush team now estimates the cost of the Iraq war at about $500 billion.
But Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said this week that the actual costs to date have been about $3 trillion, according to his study — and the costs are certain to soar in coming years, with the need to rebuild the military and provide lifetime health care to veterans. The final price tag could be between $5 trillion and $7 trillion.
It’s a sobering reminder of the unforeseen costs of war.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration tried to shoot the messenger: “People like Joe Stiglitz lack the courage to consider the cost of doing nothing and the cost of failure,†said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.
It doesn’t look like courage — more like fiscal recklessness and managerial incompetence — to refuse to honestly face the soaring costs of this elective misadventure.
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66 Comments
“It doesn’t look like courage — more like fiscal recklessness and managerial incompetence — to refuse to honestly face the soaring costs of this elective misadventure.”
not if yer halliburton or blackwater or one of the other recipients of no-bid largess.
“days, weeks, months, certainly not years”
Measuring success or failure in dollars – a novel concept.
Maybe the Superbowl should do that.
Wait..
nm…
Reckless Repubs., just put it on the tab. The cost of doing nothing pales against the cost of doing the wrong thing.
I thought Iraqi oil revenues were going to pay for the war?
What is the price of freedom?
Removing Saddam did convince Libya to swear off of terrorism.
What is that worth?
I wonder how many “gung ho pro war” people would stay that way if the government levied a special war tax to pay for it?
The cost was have been about $40 billion and less than six months in all, with no American casualties.
That was the prediction from George W Bush.
Now George says that the Republicans will hold the White House in November and possibly retake the House and Senate.
If you were a betting man or woman, how would you bet on the Election of 2008?
“What is that worth?”
How much more secure would we be if we had spent that $1 trillion on securing our borders, expanding and improving our intelligence network and improving security at vulnerable locations within the US?
Maybe the Shrub should create a new company- Iraqi War, Inc., and sell shares in it to make money. You know, sorta like Catch-22 when the entire cotton crop of Egypt was bought and then sold below cost, thus making a “profit”.
When you’re the Shrub, ya gotta think big, even globally!
“Doan need no stinkin’ countants”!
Find the cost of freedom.
I’ve been on here telling you what Stiglitz has been saying. He also has said that we’re looking at something like 1929. Yay.
Cost of Freedom? If you’re a dumb ass that thinks this war helps our freedom at all, then it’s pretty fuching cheap.
But in the real world, this war has been a fuching disaster from the get go. Where the fuch is Osama?
An awful lot of Libs are living in an awful lot of past. What would be the cost of pulling out like the dems want?
That’s right: we need more inspiring slogans. That’ll make it okay.
Ironic, AW, that line. I recall a longer version: “Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground.” Typically, Crosby Stills Nash & Young would follow it live with “Ohio,” a song about 4 people were shot dead at an anti-war protest.
What would be the cost of pulling out like the dems want?
Mixed results, depending on how it’s done. But remaining just to get shot at, for 13 permanent militarily bases and the benefit of defense contractors, is not the way to go.
I think they should remove the age limit on military service, then all you insane chicken hawks could go and fight. But you wouldn’t. You’d have excuses of all sorts as to why you’d need to stay here.
Cost of Freedom…sh.it.
This war has cost us our freedom.
Heh, Pleefer, bring a draft–of any kind!–and watch the yellow elephants squirm!
I don’t favor that, because too many innocent young people would get shipped off. But then, I dunno: You think people oppose the war now ? Heheh!
Darn, Rage, I thought I was nearly the only one ’round here that remembered that from CSNY. :-)
“American Way,” without a hint of awareness of the irony, quotes the CSN&Y song –
“Find the cost of freedom.”
Lyrics which go on –
Buried in the ground.
Mother Earth will swallow you.
Lay your body down.
The song says, “your” body, “American Way.” Not 4,000 others while you sit her being a chickenhawk war monger. *Your* body.
That’s the cost of freedom.
As if Iraq was ever a threat to any American until George WMD Bush waged war on false grounds.
What have *you* paid to the “cost of freedom,” “American Way?” Are you rich enough to have received a tax cut from the Republic Party? Congratulations! You’re cashing in on the blood money of 4,000 dead Americans and 30,000 wounded Americans and hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis.
Find the profit of “freedom,” “American Way.” It must be buried in your bank book.
How proud you must be.
Heh, well, Vaughn, I was a widdle kid, but I have older siblings. . . . :)
I think that the Intelligence community gets plenty of funds from smuggling Cocaine on their planes they do renditions on
They use the same planes, Tom? Well, as least they’re doing something efficiently.
“I wonder how many “gung ho pro war” people would stay that way if the government levied a special war tax to pay for it?”
Make it a war SALES tax so the effect is immediate.
Then, as Rage said, institute a draft.
We’d be outa there in about… five minutes.
“Removing Saddam did convince Libya to swear off of terrorism.
What is that worth?”
Um let me think….
Nothing?
Farm Gal,
No, make it a windfall tax on war profits. Any truly patriotic company would gladly forego profits for freedom!
Oh, now I get it. We waged war, lost 4,000 lives and suffered 29,000 casualties and a national treasure to scare Momar Kadafi!
“Removing Saddam did convince Libya to swear off of terrorism.
What is that worth?”
I have never heard THAT yarn before! Momar got religion when we sent a cruise missile through his daughter’s bedroom window.
I can’t believe anyone outside the White House is still defending this monumental BLUNDER of a war. We are coming up on the fifth anniversary
of the beginning of this stupid war and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
“You got to know when to hold ‘em; know when to fold ‘em.”
One of the casualtties of this administration has been the trust of our allies. To-day it was reported by Drudge that Prince Harry has been in Afganistan since December, doing what combat junior infantry officers do. The mainline press knew of it but kept it quite lest his platoon come under extra heavy attention by the Taliban ..they’d love to get a Royal or better still take him prisoner. The leak just furthers the reasons why the other nations have been reluctant to share sensitive information.
They used to use the same planes, but they didn’t get anyone but Bush appointees to fly those planes. So they keep crashing them.
“The leak just furthers the reasons why the other nations have been reluctant to share sensitive information.”
It’s more likely they don’t trust the New York Times.
“You got to know when to hold ‘em; know when to fold ‘em.”
david b
Yup, we fold the defunct neo-conservatives Project for a New American Century plans of invading Iran, and Syria that is part of their 3 country overhaul of nation building in the middle east to transform it into western friendly democratic countries.
We hold the Iraq hand we’ve been dealt, because what Bush did was create a project something the size of China’s new 3 gorges dam on a metaphorical scale, that would be like bailing out on building the rest of the dam halfway through the project, which would end in catostrophic floods. I think we kind of need to stay in Iraq and finish this quagmire Bush started, in about 10-20 years Iraq will be better off if we stay there. We aren’t at War in Iraq anymore, its more like peacekeeping during our god foresaken nation building crusades.
Which I don’t think we should do nation building, we should encourage and give incentives for countries to change, but I don’t think we should invade countries by storm and impose democracy with bombs and guns.
Pretty indicative that the pathetic Wingnut apologists lack the stomach to take this much further. Pretty hard to spin $3 trillion. Not that they won’t go on trying.
The Lib anger should be to the Libs in Congress.
They are the ones who sold you a bill of goods.
You did get minimum wage and the Rocket investigated though.
Republicans aren’t usually consistent except for when it comes to expanding the size of the federal budget. If it takes nearly 4,000 more dead Americans to get that budget higher then the only question they’ll ask is how many more they need to kill to make a bigger profit at taxpayer expense.
“…the only question they’ll ask is how many more they need to kill to make a bigger profit at taxpayer expense.”
You should tell this to pelosi and reid.
Yeah, Fleettwood, we know.
Pelosi and Reid, Pelosi and Reid, Pelosi and Reid.
But you know who they’re a helluva lot better than?
Dick and Bush.
Every time I hear about some outrage new cost, I just translate it into “weeks in Iraq.”
The 50 billion dollar farm bill?
20 weeks in Iraq.
500 million for Pell grants?
Three days in Iraq.
And these are the same jeenyouses who are ready to scrap Social Security because it might go broke forty years from now . . .
It’s nearly 5 years later, so what happened to all the Support Our Troops ribbons in the stores and on cars? Don’t see many around. Does this mean nobody is “supporting our troops”? Or was it just as patriotic passing fancy? Hmmm?
How many on the right would cheer if Bush announced tomorrow that we’re bring our troops home from Iraq? That he had decided it was the best thing for our country to have our young men and women home, securing the borders and really helping the citizens of the U.S.?
I wonder why scholfield chose not to mention that Stiglitz was part of Clinton’s first term Cabinet?
And that is relevant….how fleetie?
It would be relevant to the story, don’t you think?
Full disclosure and all.
The man is a Nobel Prize-winning economist.
Are you attacking his credentials on the basis of a job he used to have?
Tell ya what fleetie.
Why don’t you tell us. How long do you think the US should commit money and troops to Iraq?
“How long do you think the US should commit money and troops to Iraq?”
Until global warming puts New York underwater.
“Or was it just as patriotic passing fancy? Hmmm?”
My money is on the thought it was an election strategy.
Kinda like the hate amendments.
Well sign on up and ship out fleetie.
In another 10 to 20 yrs. Iraq might be better off, but we’ll be bankrupted.
I’d love to see the govt. send out statements for everyone’s part of the tab.
I did the math. $7,000,000,000,000 / 131,113,969
(Total population filing tax returns in 2004) = $53,388.67. I figure we strech this over the next five year and then it will only cost (in addition to your current taxes) an aditional $10,678/year for the tax paying population. We could have this debt paid of in no time!
*I didn’t figure in inflation, seemed a little to indepth.
Heh.
I remember in 2002 “talking” with a vet on UseNet about the fiasco that was about to become Iraq. Him among a hundred other vets, all gung ho as hell. All of ‘em just strainin’ at the leash to break into Iraq and smash it all to hell. I’ll never forget how that idiot came plumb unglued when I told him that the cost of Iraq to the US Treasury, sans paying allies, could reasonably be expected to top $1 trillion. Guys went n u t s. He wasn’t the only one, though. Lots of people told me that my estimate was nuts.
And I was way off, by a factor of something between five and seven: $5-$7 trillion vs just the one.
I’d bet another trillion that idiot never learned a thing and like fleettwood would much prefer to slander Joe Stiglitz than admit what a colossally, ruinously costly detour Iraq was, is, and will be.
Just think: your grandkids and their children will get to pay higher taxes, and in return they’ll get the warm fuzzy of having scared Mohamar Ghadafi to death back in aught-3. Well, that and the ICBM that paid his family a visit. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled.
RD,
“Does this mean nobody is “supporting our troops”?”
No, it means that since the right wing attempted to reinterpret “Support Our Troops” as “Support Our Commander-In-Chief,” most people backed off.
American Way,” without a hint of awareness of the irony, quotes the CSN&Y song –
Actually Monkey, why ELSE do you suppose I posted just the first line?
49 reasons.
We all have to pay for this and we will be paying for this and Bush’s total stupidity for at least a generation. We will all suffer some because of Bush and the Republicans and some will suffer greatly. But the suffering should be done mostly by Bush’s friends the RICH. We should RAISE TAXES on the rich to pay for the WAR and for Bush’s other dumb mistakes.
President G.W. Bush contributed more to the national debt than all prior presidents combined.
Getting out of this problem will not be simple.
Some thoughts on the above:
http://www.concordcoalition.org/events/fiscal-wake-up/docs/070803-Op08-BudgetPaper.pdf
“We all have to pay for this ”
Yup.
And I don’t think it was an accident. I think it was planned.
It was a strategy. Oh not by bush. He’s a face man. A cardboard cutout.
The idea is to bury the country in such debt that ANY and I mean any domestic social spending gets cut. Insurance of the general welfare is already long gone. SCHIPS is gone too.
Next? The right, if they can, will tell us that “Well, social security was a nice idea. But we just can’t afford it anymore.” The same will go for medicare, medicaid and any other domestic social spending.
They have mortgaged our future on war and subsidies for big business. Now? They’ll tell us it is not right to saddle the kids with the debt. And they will TRY to take away all domestic social entitlments to pay the bill. Given the age divide in America as more and more Americans live off of investments dependent for profit on the outsource of American labor, they may succeed. They have so far.
Abraham Lincoln said “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Well, we’ll see.
Paying off debt, is not necessarily a clarion for class warfare; at least I hope. If it is, we are all f>cked.
A first step is letting the Bush tax cuts on the richest American expire. The top 1% of taxpayers got a reduction of 50% rate to 35%. Sorry guys, we found another pizza – you will pay more. AMT stays in effect – Sorry, Max, – if I had to pay it, I’d be pissed, too.
Letting the Bush madness expire, and ending the war in Iraq will not be enough to get us out of the mess we are in. Eliminating all waste and fraud in Gov’t spending will not be enough.
We will all have to make sacrifices. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.
Isn’t it interesting that we’re seeing the signs of stagflation, just like we did in the wake of the Vietnam Adventure?
The repeal of the estate or “death tax” is going to have to go too. As is the repeal of the capital gains tax.
A nation with swelling debt cannot continue to allow the accumulation/ distribution of wealth to those who already have and make more money.
We will have to have a little socialism. Elsewhise we will have a population that demands a lot of it.
Our foreign entanglements for wealthy interests must also end. As there will be a diminishing population that sees any personal stake in them.
Correct, J R, the “death” tax is a pretty huge joke, that effects a very small percentage of U.S. taxpayers. That tax should stay in effect.
Capital gains tax, ditto – same reason.
Please check your email…
J R–
I think you hit the nail right on the head.
Massive, insurmountable debt is the plan.
That way, government for the social good will have proven to have “failed,” and we can just scrap the whole thing and let the corporatocracy rape and pillage without further hindrance.
Not on my watch, it won’t.
Come the revolution, the first shall be last.
Number of confirmed American deaths as of Feb 28th: 3973.
Number of caskets seen on American TV: 0.
Bush-Cheney pretending the war isn’t costing anything: priceless.
Give me a break, if anybody out there thinks that this war is going to make the world a safer place then I have some land for sale. The war in Iraq has accomplished one thing that the President can claim, getting rid of Saddam H. That was something that Iran tried and was unsuccessful at doing. To that extent, Iran, says THANK YOU, BUSH. As far as establishing a Democracy, Iran again says thanks President Bush we will establish our version not yours. This war has cost way to much money but more importantly it has cost too many of our kids that are our future. ECON 101, what the hell does Libya have to do with the cost of the war in Iraq? If you are so wrapped up in the benefits of this war then look at where the money is coming from, CHINA. What part of communist RED China do you and King George II not understand?
There is a cost to the war. No one is pretending there is not.
Only crybaby liberals want to withdraw because the price is too painful. Most of you don’t make the money to pay taxes anyway so what’s your problem?
CapnAmerica is a fine example. He whines all day and night – because he wants MORE for HIM. Selfish.
What part of communist RED China do you and King George II not understand?
What part of it do YOU understand Gray Fox?
Obviously very little.
Go on. Explain it now. If you can.
Why do you want to see the caskets?
Sick sob.
Concerned Citizen, YOU BIG FUC—G CRYBABY, JOIN THE FU—-G ARMY AND YOU PAY THE PRICE WITH YOUR STUPID INSIIFIGANT OVERPAID LIFE!!!!!!
Concerned Citizen, You Stupid Piece of Sh__, What part of communist Cuba do you not understand? If you can not trade with a country because it is communist then how can you justify trading with another (China) that is just as communist if not more? Obviously, I understand a lot more then you!
Gray Fox whines like Gray Bitch Dog.
11 Trackbacks
[...] Randy Scholfield wrote an interesting post today on The actual cost of Iraq warHere’s a quick excerptRemember when President Bush’s chief economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, said back in 2003 that the Iraq war would cost from $100 billion to $200 billion? For that frank appraisal, he was fired. The Bush team now estimates the cost of the … [...]
[...] back in 2002-2003, the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq was either going to cost $60 billion, or $100-$200 billion. Actually, we can start by tossing that top figure out, since not long after Bush economic advisor [...]
[...] back in 2002-2003, the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq was either going to cost $60 billion, or $100-$200 billion. Actually, we can start by tossing that top figure out, since not long after Bush economic advisor [...]
[...] The actual cost of Iraq war [...]
[...] back in 2002-2003, the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq was either going to cost $60 billion, or $100-$200 billion. Actually, we can start by tossing that top figure out, since not long after Bush economic advisor [...]
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[...] back in 2002-2003, the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq was either going to cost $60 billion, or $100-$200 billion. Actually, we can start by tossing that top figure out, since not long after Bush economic advisor [...]
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