AP article asks: Is the Iraq war a relative bargain?

[ProSense]

Is the Iraq war a relative bargain?

Conflict a small piece of overall budget, but it’s being paid for with debt

Updated: 10:52 p.m. ET March 17, 2007

NEW YORK - After four years, America’s cost for the war in Iraq has reached nearly $500 billion — more than the total for the Korean War and nearly as much as 12 years in Vietnam, adjusting for inflation. The ultimate cost could reach $1 trillion or more.

A lot of money? No question.

But even though the war has turned out to be much more expensive than Bush administration officials predicted on the eve of the March 2003 invasion, it is relatively affordable — at least in historical terms.

<...>

That huge cost is partly a result of the number and type of casualties the Iraq war has produced. Troops in Iraq have a much better chance of surviving serious injuries than those wounded in previous wars; there have been 16 troops wounded there for every fatality, compared to 2.6 injuries per death in Vietnam and 2.8 in Korea.

“While it is welcome news and a credit to military medicine that more soldiers are surviving grievous wounds, the existence of so many veterans, with such a high level of injuries, is yet another aspect of this war for which the Pentagon and the administration failed to plan, prepare and budget,” Bilmes wrote in a January working paper.

In a study co-authored with Columbia University economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, Bilmes estimated that the real price of the Iraq war, when you add up spending to date, future costs and economic impacts such as elevated oil prices, is well over $2 trillion.

That’s an impressive number...

link

As another year in Iraq come to and end, time for despicable spin, such as the above, from the MSM.

[unblock]

1. well then, let's stay in until the bills REALLY pile up!

:wtf:

[indepat]

2. Pretty soon the real total cost of the war will likely exceed the ultimate profits inuring to big

companies. What a bargain in lives lost and destroyed, brains blown asunder, treasury, destroyed infrastructure, destroyed economies, destroyed institutions and goodwill. What a windfall for big oil.

[Cha]

3. What a fucking stupid

premise. Just ask the loved ones of the people who were murdered if this fucking misbegotten bushit War On Iraq was worth it. Not some asshole sitting his warm and cozy office attempting to rosy up the fires of hell with figures.

[cassiepriam]

4. Total est costs at $2 Trillion and that is a bargain?

What about the human costs in life and limb?
The damage to Iraq?

Insane to say this is a cheap war.

[screembloodymurder]

5. If we fail, the currency consequences will be enormous.

We are fighting to keep our country solvent and to maintain the empire. If you're a Bush and other people's families are doing the fighting, it seems like a small price to pay.