The cost of war

The Cost of War

An interesting comparison:

* Cost is for EACH american e.g. a family of four has incurred an out-of-pocket loss of almost $5000. Another way to look at it is to consider just what $350 billion dollars would buy in terms of medical research, schools, environmental programs, tax reduction (now there's a concept!), health care and so many other beneficial programs. What would your state be able to do if the government had dumped $6.7 billion into their coffers? Think about it!

There are a number of studies that have analyzed the cost of "our" war against al Queda, the Taliban in Afghanistan and in Iraq. The numbers may vary but the bottom line is that, for America, the cost in dollars is huge and the cost in lives, both deaths and injuries, for both America and Iraq and Afghanistan, is unacceptable. Here are some sobering figures:

US war expense greater than $340 billion dollars
US combatant deaths - 2800 Iraq + 300 Afghanistan
US combatant injured - 42,000 Iraq + 800 Afghanistan
Iraqi/Afghanistan troops killed - 30,000 + 8500
Iraqi/Afghanistan civilians killed - 655,000 + 3500
Note: Only 50,000 civilian deaths in Iraq are acknowleged by US military but see results of Lancet report below!

What is hidden behind those figures is the damage we've done to the economies and infrastructure of both countries as well as the civilians who have been forced into a life of poverty because they have been forced to flee their homes.




A recent report published by the Lancet, one of the most respected medical journals in the world, put the calculated number of Iraqi deaths at 655,000 since the US invaded. Sounds almost unbelievably huge doesn't it? That's what I thought. Another blown-out-of-proportion study done by a bunch of amateurs. But the Lancet doesn't publish studies of this nature without first checking their factuality. Consider the following excerpt from a recent article by Gwynne Dyer:

....Then the Johns Hopkins team of epidemiologists tabulated the statistics and drew their conclusions.
The most striking thing in the study, in terms of credibility, is that the pre-war death rate in Iraq for the period January 2002 to March 2003, as calculated from their evidence, was 5.5 per thousand per year.
That is virtually identical to the U.S. government estimate of the death rate in Iraq for the same period.
Then, from the same evidence, they calculate that the death rate since the invasion has been 13.3 per thousand per year.
The difference between the pre-war and post-war death rates over a period of 40 months is 655,000 deaths.
More precisely, the deaths reported by the 12,801 people surveyed, when extrapolated to the entire country, indicates a range of between 426,369 and 793,663 excess deaths - but the sample is big enough that there is a 95 per cent certainty that the true figure is within that range.
The study.... has been reviewed by four independent experts. [and determined to be within reason] (Highlights are mine)

For more information concerning "body counts": http://www.unknownnews.net/casualties.html

President Bush has admitted he secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without ever seeking court approval. Famed constitutional attorney Martin Garbus and former intelligence officer Christopher Pyle both say it is an impeachable offense. Yet Bush continues to bull his way down a path with no regard to the rightness of his decisions. He operates above the law because that's where he sits...he's the President of the United States. He operates with arrogance and impunity and all 300,000,000 Americans below him are paying the price...and will continue to do so for many years to come!