Bronco_Beerslug
02-22-2006, 07:38 PM
I wonder what and how many things could we have paid for with 2 trillion?
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Study: True Costs of Iraq War Could Top $2 Trillion
by Corey Flintoff
January 13, 2006 · The cost of the U.S.-led invasion and continued occupation of Iraq could top $2 trillion, according to a new academic study -- a sum far larger than any estimates by the Bush administration. The study factors in the long-term costs, such as replacing worn or destroyed military equipment, paying interest on the debt used to finance the war and providing lifetime care for disabled veterans.
http://tinyurl.com/zhmy6
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Iraq sticker shock
By Mark Benjamin
Caring for seriously wounded soldiers and other hidden costs could push the price tag of Bush's Iraq war to a staggering $2 trillion, a new study claims.
Jan. 11, 2006 | A year ago the Pentagon's top personnel official shocked veterans when he said the government was spending too much on benefits for Americans who had served in the military. He suggested that the money was better spent on bullets and bombs. "The amounts have gotten to the point where they are hurtful," David Chu, the Pentagon's undersecretary for personnel and readiness, said of veterans' benefits on Jan. 25, 2005, according to the Wall Street Journal. "They are taking away from the nation's ability to defend itself."
Veterans were outraged. Thomas P. Cadmus, then the national commander of the American Legion, called Chu's comments "a slap in the face to every veteran who took the oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies." In a prepared statement, Cadmus reminded Chu that taking care of veterans is part of the "ongoing cost of war."
The Pentagon's position on cost cutting was a sign that the United States was facing serious sticker shock over Iraq, and that the Bush administration was looking to pinch some pennies, even if that meant skimping on benefits for those who had already served. The staggering cost of the Iraq war is even more apparent today. 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.
"What shocked me was the number of wounded with very serious injuries," Bilmes said in an interview, regarding the costs of caring for soldiers' severe wounds. A number of soldiers who've suffered brain trauma in the war are already facing poor treatment and falling through the cracks of a beleaguered military healthcare system. Bilmes says that most public government estimates of the cost of war exclude pricey items like taking care of veterans. "I think it would be much, much better if people knew about these costs before waging a war," she noted.
Both Bilmes and Stiglitz worked for the Clinton administration, Bilmes at the Department of Commerce and Stiglitz with the Council of Economic Advisors. Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001 and served as chief economist at the World Bank, has been sharply critical of the Bush administration's Iraq policy.
The study considers a number of hidden costs, including the price tag of caring for the 20 percent of wounded soldiers returning from Iraq with "major head or spinal injury," plus amputees and soldiers with "blindness, deafness, partial vision and hearing impairment, nerve damage and burns." The study figures that 3,213 soldiers who have suffered head or brain injuries in Iraq, for example, will need lifetime care that could total from $600,000 to $5 million per soldier.
(CONTINUED)
http://tinyurl.com/hrspv
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Study: True Costs of Iraq War Could Top $2 Trillion
by Corey Flintoff
January 13, 2006 · The cost of the U.S.-led invasion and continued occupation of Iraq could top $2 trillion, according to a new academic study -- a sum far larger than any estimates by the Bush administration. The study factors in the long-term costs, such as replacing worn or destroyed military equipment, paying interest on the debt used to finance the war and providing lifetime care for disabled veterans.
http://tinyurl.com/zhmy6
----------------------------------------------------
Iraq sticker shock
By Mark Benjamin
Caring for seriously wounded soldiers and other hidden costs could push the price tag of Bush's Iraq war to a staggering $2 trillion, a new study claims.
Jan. 11, 2006 | A year ago the Pentagon's top personnel official shocked veterans when he said the government was spending too much on benefits for Americans who had served in the military. He suggested that the money was better spent on bullets and bombs. "The amounts have gotten to the point where they are hurtful," David Chu, the Pentagon's undersecretary for personnel and readiness, said of veterans' benefits on Jan. 25, 2005, according to the Wall Street Journal. "They are taking away from the nation's ability to defend itself."
Veterans were outraged. Thomas P. Cadmus, then the national commander of the American Legion, called Chu's comments "a slap in the face to every veteran who took the oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies." In a prepared statement, Cadmus reminded Chu that taking care of veterans is part of the "ongoing cost of war."
The Pentagon's position on cost cutting was a sign that the United States was facing serious sticker shock over Iraq, and that the Bush administration was looking to pinch some pennies, even if that meant skimping on benefits for those who had already served. The staggering cost of the Iraq war is even more apparent today. 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.
"What shocked me was the number of wounded with very serious injuries," Bilmes said in an interview, regarding the costs of caring for soldiers' severe wounds. A number of soldiers who've suffered brain trauma in the war are already facing poor treatment and falling through the cracks of a beleaguered military healthcare system. Bilmes says that most public government estimates of the cost of war exclude pricey items like taking care of veterans. "I think it would be much, much better if people knew about these costs before waging a war," she noted.
Both Bilmes and Stiglitz worked for the Clinton administration, Bilmes at the Department of Commerce and Stiglitz with the Council of Economic Advisors. Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001 and served as chief economist at the World Bank, has been sharply critical of the Bush administration's Iraq policy.
The study considers a number of hidden costs, including the price tag of caring for the 20 percent of wounded soldiers returning from Iraq with "major head or spinal injury," plus amputees and soldiers with "blindness, deafness, partial vision and hearing impairment, nerve damage and burns." The study figures that 3,213 soldiers who have suffered head or brain injuries in Iraq, for example, will need lifetime care that could total from $600,000 to $5 million per soldier.
(CONTINUED)
http://tinyurl.com/hrspv