Joe Stiglitz (remember?) is the Nobel Prize winning economist who co-authored a paper during the Iraq war, predicting that the war would end up costing us over $3 trillion. "End up" because he factored in the ongoing health care costs for veterans of that war. His conclusions were vilified by the Bush administration as well as conservative media, talk show hosts, and bloggers.
Of course, Stiglitz was right -- and then some! Here are more results from George W. Bush's unnecessary and costly invasion.
A new report by the “Costs of War” project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies finds that nearly 200,000 people, including soldiers and civilians, were killed in the war in Iraq President George W. Bush launched 10 years ago.The report also found that American taxpayers will ultimately spend roughly $2.2 trillion on the war, but because the U.S. government borrowed to finance the conflict, interest payments through the year 2053 means that the total bill could reach nearly $4 trillion.
“Nearly every government that goes to war underestimates its duration, neglects to tally all the costs, and overestimates the political objectives that will be accomplished by war’s violence,” said Boston University professor of political science and project co-director Neta C. Crawford.
Indeed, the war devastated the Iraqi health care system and allowed militants to hone their skills and export them to neighboring conflicts... ...Think Progress
Add to that the news that the "Special Inspector-General for Iraq Reconstruction’s final report released last week finding that the U.S. spent $60 billion on reconstruction efforts in Iraq and that $10 billion of it was wasted on fraud and abuse."
Then remember that it's this kind of Republican bad judgment and spending that continued, into the second decade of the new century, to make our financial lives so perilous. On top of giving us a lousy economy, the Republican party goes on to offer "austerity" as a solution. Our austerity, of course. Not austerity for the right, the wealthy, for their supporters, and for those who benefit from military spending.
Rand Paul to the contrary not withstanding, there's nothing to assure Americans that the Republican party, given power once again, wouldn't use it for profiteering, giving us more costly -- and even crueler -- military mistakes.
Comments