2 billion a week
Here's what the American government is spending in Iraq:
$2,000,000,000.00 each week
$285,714,285.71 each day
$11,904,761.90 each hour
$198,412.70 each minute
$3,306.88 each second
Approximate total spent so far: $353,883,517,000.00
Amount borrowed to pay for the war: $353,883,517,000.00
$2,000,000,000.00 each week
$285,714,285.71 each day
$11,904,761.90 each hour
$198,412.70 each minute
$3,306.88 each second
Approximate total spent so far: $353,883,517,000.00
Amount borrowed to pay for the war: $353,883,517,000.00
posted by Kevmo at 7:50 PM
4 Comments:
Those are interesting figures, Kevin, and sad. Even sadder, in my opinion,is that Americans spent $705.9B in 2004 on entertainment, nearly $602B more than the yearly cost of the war based on your figures. (CBS MarketWatch.com, January 11, 2005.) No matter what our opinion is of the war, the comparison is an interesting one, I think.
Good comment Pat. Our government spends money like we do.
I heard an interesting comment by Dennis Miller the other day: "We cannot win in Iraq by waging a politically correct war." In my opinion, our attempt to be politically correct so often is why this war has dragged on so long and cost so much money.
We are ultra careful in trying not to offend by shielding religious holidays, mosques, shrines, etc. from the conflict. We go to great lengths to try to keep down civilian casualties when planning strikes. Our opponents have no problem using our weaknesses against us.
Our news media feeds us negative stories about poor treatment of prisoners and questioning the use of force by young men caught in life and death situations. Every other day we get another news story about two more of our soldiers dying. No wonder our top military brass are making some decisions based on how they will play out in the news.
Our culture values human rights and wants to maintain the high ground. Maybe the old saying of "All's fair in love and war" doesn't quite apply anymore. But a war is not a high school civics project. We need to do what it takes to win and get out.
Given the relative military capabilities and organizations of the two countries I wonder how long this conflict would last if our military was allowed to just go in and do their job. A shorter conflict would definitely have cost less money and probably been more humane overall.
The 3,000 American soldiers lives lost are a large price as well. However, far more than that were lost in the opening hours of storming beaches in Europe in WWII. Could we or would we have perserved if that conflict occurred today with the press coverage we have?
deanmcq, you may be right, I don't know. The million (or should I say billion) dollar question is, what would it take to win at this point? I'm saddened by the loss of life of both Americans & Iraqis in a situation that just seems to get worse.
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