R
rdean
Guest
Rebuilding Iraq
2008, we put the total cost to the United States of the Iraq war at $3 trillion. This price tag dwarfed previous estimates, including the Bush administration's 2003 projections of a $50 billion to $60 billion war.
But today, as the United States ends combat in Iraq, it appears that our $3 trillion estimate (which accounted for both government expenses and the war's broader impact on the U.S. economy) was, if anything, too low. For example, the cost of diagnosing, treating and compensating disabled veterans has proved higher than we expected.
When the United States went to war in Iraq, the price of oil was less than $25 a barrel, and futures markets expected it to remain around that level. With the war, prices started to soar, reaching $140 a barrel by 2008.
In calculating our $3 trillion estimate two years ago, we blamed the war for a $5-per-barrel oil price increase. We now believe that a more realistic (if still conservative) estimate of the war's impact on prices works out to at least $10 per barrel. That would add at least $250 billion in direct costs to our original assessment of the war's price tag. But the cost of this increase doesn't stop there: Higher oil prices had a devastating effect on the economy.
The result is that the recession will be longer, output lower, unemployment higher and deficits larger than they would have been absent the war.
The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond
Americans will spend decades treating the physical and psychological wounds of Iraq veterans and when the economic consequences of the invasion are taken into account, the costs are staggering.
Joseph Stiglitz on Our 'Three Trillion Dollar War'
A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million childrens hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah has cost three times more than projected, yet sewage still runs through the streets.
America wasted billions rebuilding Iraq
Iraq was the Republicans war. "You are with us or with the terrorists". When you have to use language like that to make people do what you want, it belongs to you. All the money Republicans spent in Iraq. Why won't they spend any here? Do they like Iraq better? Why there and not here? Simple question.
2008, we put the total cost to the United States of the Iraq war at $3 trillion. This price tag dwarfed previous estimates, including the Bush administration's 2003 projections of a $50 billion to $60 billion war.
But today, as the United States ends combat in Iraq, it appears that our $3 trillion estimate (which accounted for both government expenses and the war's broader impact on the U.S. economy) was, if anything, too low. For example, the cost of diagnosing, treating and compensating disabled veterans has proved higher than we expected.
When the United States went to war in Iraq, the price of oil was less than $25 a barrel, and futures markets expected it to remain around that level. With the war, prices started to soar, reaching $140 a barrel by 2008.
In calculating our $3 trillion estimate two years ago, we blamed the war for a $5-per-barrel oil price increase. We now believe that a more realistic (if still conservative) estimate of the war's impact on prices works out to at least $10 per barrel. That would add at least $250 billion in direct costs to our original assessment of the war's price tag. But the cost of this increase doesn't stop there: Higher oil prices had a devastating effect on the economy.
The result is that the recession will be longer, output lower, unemployment higher and deficits larger than they would have been absent the war.
The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond
Americans will spend decades treating the physical and psychological wounds of Iraq veterans and when the economic consequences of the invasion are taken into account, the costs are staggering.
Joseph Stiglitz on Our 'Three Trillion Dollar War'
A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million childrens hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah has cost three times more than projected, yet sewage still runs through the streets.
America wasted billions rebuilding Iraq
Iraq was the Republicans war. "You are with us or with the terrorists". When you have to use language like that to make people do what you want, it belongs to you. All the money Republicans spent in Iraq. Why won't they spend any here? Do they like Iraq better? Why there and not here? Simple question.
