Salon - The financial cost of bin Laden: (At least) $1.3 trillion

[Amerigo Vespucci]

The financial cost of bin Laden: (At least) $1.3 trillion

Monday, May 2, 2011 14:03 ET

By Justin Elliott



President Bush delivers an address to the nation on March 17, 2003, regarding a possible war with Iraq.

http://www.salon.com/news/osama_bin_laden/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/05/02/cost_of_bin_laden_wars

Amid the celebration today, a sobering note from a recent congressional study: Since Osama bin Laden's organization launched the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress has appropriated $1.3 trillion on wars, extra security measures and veterans' healthcare.

The March 2011 Congressional Research Service study (.pdf), flagged by Sam Stein, found Congress has OKed "$1.283 trillion for military operations, base security, reconstruction, foreign aid, embassy costs, and veterans’ health care for the three operations initiated since the 9/11 attacks" -- Iraq, Afghanistan and the initiative to secure military bases. The lion's share of that has gone to the Iraq war, which, of course, was justified in part on the basis of a nonexistent connection to al-Qaida and bin Laden.



The $1.3 trillion figure is almost certainly an underestimate. For one thing, as the study notes, the Defense Department appropriations represented in that figure do not include some major items...

[Poll_Blind]

1. No, see, you ruin it all when you remind me of shit like that. Just ruin it!

I would prefer to think of today as September 12, 2001. And I would also prefer to believe that when they shot bin Laden, all the money we spent on the absolutely bullshit War on Terror magically spilled out, along with a copy of The Constitution that American politicians actually respect.

PB

[notesdev]

2. My first thought

can we get out of Afghanistan & Iraq and get rid of the official airport gropers now?