Experts Calculate Billions in Long-term Costs of War

[lider_r]

Rumsfelds estimate on the cost of the war- $50 Billion

Cost so far- $450 Billion

Experts Calculate Billions in Long-term Costs of War (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/middle_east/iraq/)

MP3-
http://wwwtc.pbs.org/newshour/rss/media/2007/05/22/20070522_warcost28.mp3 (http://wwwtc.pbs.org/newshour/rss/media/2007/05/22/20070522_warcost28.mp3)

Real Audio-
http://media.pbs.org/ramgen/newshour/expansion/2007/05/22/20070522_warcost28.rm?altplay=20070522_warcost28.rm (http://media.pbs.org/ramgen/newshour/expansion/2007/05/22/20070522_warcost28.rm?altplay=20070522_warcost28.rm)


National Priorites Project- The cost of war (http://costofwar.com/)

[nognig]

... putting these factors together, we find a cost to the U.S. economy of smoking of about $130 billion per year.


http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/reports/tobacco.pdf

The Iraq war has cost $450 billion over 4 years. So that means that the cost of the war is actually LESS than the cost of smoking.

Thanks for the info.

NN

[noname]

Oh the no-bid contracts to cheney-halliburton are my favorite.p-)

[Euroche]

http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/reports/tobacco.pdf

The Iraq war has cost $450 billion over 4 years. So that means that the cost of the war is actually LESS than the cost of smoking.

Thanks for the info.

NN

not when you factor in all the health care costs of returning soldiers.

[Bia]

http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/reports/tobacco.pdf

The Iraq war has cost $450 billion over 4 years. So that means that the cost of the war is actually LESS than the cost of smoking.

Thanks for the info.

NN

Not even close.

Pure hype my friend.

[Nano]

I tend to agree with the economic cost of the war being around the 2 trillion dollar mark, but given that it has not ended giving such an estimate is rather early and purely an academic exercise at best. They're going to have to revise the figure up or down depending on the outcome of the war itself. It may very well end up costing less and even come out as an economic positive if there are economic partnerships created in the Middle East as a result and the U.S. reaps economic benefits in one form or another.

[Flagg]

How long is a piece of string?

The cost of conflict in both lives and dollars is never cheap.

The only guess I'll make is that once this conflict ends you could put the world's best big brain forensic accountants onto it and they'll still be scratching their heads wondering what it really cost.

Good, Fast, Cheap...pick any two, usually you're lucky to get just one

[9mmRifle]

The is lots of corruption in Iraq, much of the money getting pumped in gets lost.
There are corrput people in the Iraq government, Oil is getting smuggled out of the country some of the blackmarket money goes back to fund more terror groups. Over 300 and 900 Humvees are still awaiting repair, but because money is short they will be left broken and sitting military depots. You should also cost the supplemental, extra or emergency budgets from 2007-2003 somes of them have been $78 billion dollars, $86 billion dollars, $71billion dollars.....some estimates predict a scenario where the war on terror spending could soon top $2 Trillion ( 2,000 Billion dollars) vehicles lost must also be replaced. What ever the number will be when the Iraq job is finally done, it's going to be a big expensive one.

[ElHombre]

Good, Fast, Cheap...pick any two, usually you're lucky to get just one

With Iraq we're not even getting one

[Durandal]

not when you factor in all the health care costs of returning soldiers.

Or interest paid on the money borrowed to pay for the war.