Comparable cost of Iraq occupation for an Iraqi family of four is $484,000

Terrorists on 9/11: $10 in box cutters

The US Response: $2 TRILLION and counting

Being In Debt To China: Priceless

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I do have a "priority" question when it comes to the missle shield though.

Again, it wasn't intercontiental missles launched from Russia that brought down the Towers. It was $10 in box cutters and hijacked airplanes.

Maybe we should prioritze our military budget -- like instead of spending $500 billion to defend against the Soviet Union we instead spend that money to provide free healthcare for life for our returning veterans? I think we owe them that much

We need to step back and ask ourselves if we really and truly need the latest and greatest military gadget -- or if it's just an vanity purchase like spinners on an Escalade?

We need to work smarter, not harder.

I would have to make the case that at this moment in time, no, those billions spent creating a defense against a missle attack from Russia is money that could be better applied to a) better pay for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq b) better healthare services for them when they return home c) rebuilding New Orleans after katrina (like maybe paying a few extra bucks to get the NON-TOXIC trailers) and d) repairing our crumbling infrastructure and maybe also e) investing in creating alternative energy so that spending the next 50 years guarding the oil fields in Iraq isn't quite so critical to national security.

I wish citizens had more oversight on military spending. Wouldn't it be great if citizens had line-item veto authority? Like when Lieberman sneaks in $81 BILLION to build a sub to defeat the desert dwelling Iraqi insurgents -- we, as citizens, could review that budget and through a national vote "veto" that idiotic waste of money.

I think the people that lied and misrepresented the truth about the reason we invaded Iraq be held responsible for the war and the profiterring that continues, the no-bid contracts and other violations that exist! All Americans should seek the truth and put these war criminal where they belong.We need to bring War Crimes against all that were involved!

Well put by many of you... where is the media on this issue? All of this is being kept so hush hush. Unbelievable

America would rather invest in war as opposed to investing in alternative fuel and energy sources?

You go hobs! Amen and amen again.

Moneyhungrydemonicwarians! They can't have my babies either CG!

Crob,
I'll give you that Subs for this police action in iraq is just plan stupid.

This "great missile shield" your talking about. Do you mean our ability to hit intercontinental ballistic missiles in the air? It does work. Do you remember the patriot missiles we use during the Gulf war? How about that satellite that was coming back down with a tank full of hazards fuel? Remember what we hit that with? And I do mean hit it. We didn't blow it up. We hit it with a missile. Kinetic energy man. We can shot missiles with missiles man. Talk about cool.
Sorry that "damn thing" does work.

I recently found an article on Truthdig.com detailing the massive waste, fraud and abuse occurring in the military budget.

It's crazy. We're building submarines to fight the dirt poor desert dwelling insurgents in Iraq! Submarines! Yeah, that was $81 BILLION well spent.

And that's assuming the equipment we buy actually works. Most of it doesn't. Like that great missile shield Bush insisted we needed after 9 hijackers used $10 in box cutters to hijack an airplane. Hundreds of BILLIONS into it's development and a) the terrorists still don't have missiles and b) the damn thing still doesn't work!

There's a fine distinction between short term/controlled deficit spending in times of crisis and just being a nutjob compulsive overspender.

I believe Bush has crossed over into compulsive overspender.

Debtor's Anonymous is in Bush's future and declaring national bankruptcy in front of the World Bank is in ours.

What the hell are we talking about? Our leaders are bankrupting us? They aren't my leaders. They are my representatives. It's not just Bush and Cheney. It's all of the politicians. And not just the ones in office now. We The People were let down generations ago by the congress.
Wake up people. We need to get out of the situation we call a federal government. That is the reason for all of it. Our Government isn't doing the job for us any more. It's doing the job for it's own sake. I know I'm not the only person thinking this.
When did the media first start calling or representatives our leaders? Who coined that? Was it the media or the politicians? When was the last time anyone actually read the constitution to understand it and not just to say they had read it?
The sad fact is that the new legal immigrants to this nation now more about our history than most of us natural born citizens.
we are all allowing the government into our houses for our own safety. My safety is my responsibility. Not yours or theirs. My life is MY LIFE. NOT YOURS OR THEIRS.
Read the constitution and if you find anything in there that says the government has a right to tell me how to live my life, i really want to know. I've read it several times in the last month and I still can't find anything in there that allows the government to be as big as it is today.
This has everything to do with this post. This nation was founded on the principles of freedom for the individual. The founding fathers wanted free trade with everyone. Foreign policy was free trade, not policing the world. If WE The People wanted to go to war with someone, then We The People told congress to declare war. There was no declaration of war on Iraq. There hasn't been a declaration of war on anyone since WWII. What the hell is going one?
Imagine a country that had a small national government where the individual states had more governing power then the nation government. The national government would be the mediator between the states. The economy would be open to the wish of the people of the state. The government of the United States would be funded by the states. We The People would have the say in our foreign policy as a whole. Don't worry about the social programs the federal government has in place today. History has shown that the wealthy give back to the needy.
The power of government would be in more hands then just the two groups we have today. The Dems. And the Repubs.

We wouldn't have this mess if we listened to our founding fathers. Read Common Sense by Thomas Paine. He saw this coming. Read Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and all the rest. You want a better world for our children and grandchildren? Give them the power to govern themselves. I guaranty our nation of states would be in a lot less wars.

We are all singing in harmony here... what do we do about it..."they" have sold us out, have got us, eveyone by our privates... Our reps get caught up/beat up in it as soon as they get in the political machine... nice people, good intentioned people, find that they have little power, can't even begin to live up to their promises for change... the corruption is so protected... We are going to have to impeach our entire government! People argue with us, saying that we are electing the reps, that it is our own fault... but even the best fall in the money pit fighting to keep their bread on the table as well, while the survival of the fittest 5%... The really wealthy, who do not care at all about any of the rest of us puppits, have no worries. The American future is in our trillions of dollar debt... We are already no longer our own country...who does own America? Break it down.

orionray
I'm sorry if I appeared insensitive by posting these monetary amounts. I didn't mean to devalue the vast human costs that are associated with this occupation, in Iraq and for Americans.
I think that because of the media information blackout in the US that many or perhaps the majority of our US citizens are not aware of the costs associated with the Iraq Occupation. I posted the Iraqi estimates here because I hope most people are shocked when they hear them.
Our US media is too busy keeping us entertained and their ratings up. They should be ashamed.

http://current.com/items/88885560_a_million_iraqi_deaths_the_burning_question_do...

Meanwhile we have people trying to tell us that spending on social programs would be wasteful? When are American's going to wake up and see the big picture here that this war is not in our best interest?

Oh yeah, that's right, the majority of American's rely on the MSM for their news. This will only gain headline after it's too late....and it's about half passed point-of-no-return for the Iraq War.

or we could have not been duped into going in the first place...

We are all in the bus flying over the cliff and wondering why the driver forgot to bring a parachute for all of us...

We have been led like sheep to the slaughter, more concerned about who Perez humiliates than holding our leaders accountable.

We should be proud of how entertained and materialistic we all have become. We impeach presidents for handjobs, not for illegal warmongering. But we didn't start the fire, right?

It seems the only wake-up calls American people pay any attention to have been tied to financial concerns.

CAN ANYONE TELL ME THE COST OF ONE HUMAN LIFE?

It is time to stop thinking with our checkbook, and start realizing what is truly being sacrificed.

This war really makes us weak from an international standpoint. It has happened to other nations in the past and it will happen to us. The US will be so in debt to other nations it will not be able to make decisions that reflect American policy. We will be forced to compromise our ideals to pay the bills.

YES! :-)

where do I sign the petition?

Why couldn't all of *their* assets be frozen after they are removed from the White House to get it back? They lied to us to get it, so they should have to pay for it, not our children.

Iraq has 115 billion barrels of known oil reserves. That is more than five times the total in the United States.

I would like a refund.

If someone sole your bank card and started running up charges -- you'd be pissed!

What if your bank allowed the thief to OVERDRAW your account by an indefinite amount? What if they overdrew it by almost $1 trillion dollars?

What if the bank still held you personally liable for the debt and ruined your credit rating even after the criminals had be identified?

That is how the Iraq Reconstruction Project is being financed.

Bush & Cheney stole the taxpayers checkbook and started writing bad checks to "pay" for the Reconstruction Project (I refuse to call that religious civil war in Iraq that has nothing to do with us a "war").

When the bank finally stopped their check writing abilities they whipped out their Chinese Credit Card (at only 300 percent APR) which they got by signing we, the taxpayers, up as co-signers! Now China is calling us and demanding to know how we're going to pay back all the charges Bush & Cheney ran up!

It's like identity theft on steroids.

I keep telling China that I didn't really authorize Bush to make all those charges. "Listen," I explain to the Chinese Credit Collection officer. "I didn't authorize Bush to spend $300 billion on that bullshit missile defense system with the 20 percent success rate and I didn't authorize the $700 billion he spent building freaking submarines to fight the Iraqi Navy! Iraq doesn't even have a Navy! This is all a mistake!" They don't care. Legally, I'm stilled required to pay for all the charges Bush ran up.

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There are some people who insist we need to stay in Iraq indefinitely --- not considering the possibility that, uh, yeah, we can't actually afford to pay $1 trillion dollars a year in Iraq for the next 50 years.

If you have a small business and you lose money EVERY SINGLE YEAR for 5 years -- you have no choice but to close up shop. Yeah, it sucks, but basic Econ 101 says you can't lose money like that.

The Iraq Reconstruction Project is a business that has lost 4,000 soldiers and cost about $2 trillion dollars over the last 5 years and all we've got to so for it is....a big bill and a lot of late night collection calls from China.

Time to close up shop.

sad....and insane

I just keep thinking..."I'm paying for a war I never supported."...over and over again.

bad news every which way you turn it. in our name, our best resources (people) are being squandered as is our economy. how long will the recovery take? staying the course when idjits hold the reins is such a bad idea.

just sad. People struggle to survive in America, and stupid idiot Bush and his crownies wage this war...why are US troops still in Iraq? Ohhh right, so Iran can attack us while all our troops are overseas. yeah makes sense to me.

right Hobs..I am so accustomed to King Bush and his Unitary Executive powers I forgot.
I don't have 100% faith that Obama will live up to his words but I hope that he at least helps us out of this bleak situation.for our children's and grandchildren's sake. We have failed them. We watch TV while Rome ...or Iraq burns. And along with Iraq and hundreds of thousands of their people go our own brave soldiers ...as well as our grandchildren's saving...

..I will be out protesting today. with The Impeach Bush and Cheney meetup.

Yes!
We aren't feeling it much yet. Our children and grandchildren will suffer if our next leader is not extremely skillful at mending this..
CarolynGillis

Carolyn,
When did they stop becoming your representative and start becoming your leader?

I think we actually agree on aid to the 3rd world. I'm just saying that if we measured it in per capita GDP of the aided countries, we'd be tempted to give even less.

The title of this article on current.com makes it sound like we're talking about real dollars rather than arcane projections based on ratios of GDP.

I'm a harsh critic of the Iraq war, but the reasoning
behind this cost estimate is absurd . Good thing we don't estimate the cost of aid to 3rd world countries based on their GDP per person.

Thank goodness Bush is giving us a whole $600 back. It seems completely fair that he takes $120K and gives me back an iPhone. He's a regular Santa Claus...minus the jolly part.

It is embarrassing how many years it will take me to pay my portion... and that's if I gave my entire salary to the debt.

Worse than that. Depression.

Recession? I wonder why. . . .