Iraq war price tag reaches $3 trillion: book

[Neo]

Iraq war price tag reaches $3 trillion: book​

* Nobel Prize-winning economist says only war which cost more was the Second World War​

WASHINGTON: The war in Iraq will cost US taxpayers at least three trillion dollars, a respected, Nobel Prize-winning economist wrote in a new book that was excerpted in the US press this week.

Joseph Stiglitz’s book ‘The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict’ concluded that US military operations in Iraq had already exceeded the cost of the 12-year war in Vietnam and were more than double the cost of the Korean War. “The only war in our history which cost more was the Second World War, when 16.3 million US troops fought in a campaign lasting four years, at a total cost (in 2007, inflation-adjusted dollars) of about five trillion dollars,” he wrote in the work co-authored with Harvard professor Linda Bilmes.

“With virtually the entire armed forces committed to fighting the Germans and Japanese, the cost per troop (in today’s dollars) was less than 100,000 dollars. By contrast, the Iraq war is costing upward of 400,000 dollars per troop.”

The Pentagon took exception to the figures - and to the premise that there have been undisclosed costs involved in financing the war. “It seems like an exaggerated number to us,” said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, adding, “The Pentagon has been extraordinarily transparent about what we know of the cost of the war.”

Stiglitz was winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics and former chief economist at the World Bank. His co-author Bilmes is a professor of public finance at Harvard University.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[Neo]

If only this money was used to develop Iraq, Afghanistan and other troubled countries we would be living in muc better world today.

 

[mujahideen]

All I want to know is where is all of the money from Iraq's oil going?

 

[ashfaque]

All I want to know is where is all of the money from Iraq's oil going?

To Tax payers of US

 

[mujahideen]

To Tax payers of US

What do you mean tax payers of the US. I am not getting any relief. Infact my taxes are rising and not even the gas prices are going down.

 

[mujahideen]

Iraq: a three trillion dollar war?

WASHINGTON: The war in Iraq has already cost the United States more than $400 billion by the most conservative tally, but the total bill could surpass three trillion dollars, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

By the Pentagon’s count, $527 billion were allocated from September 2001 through December 2007 to finance the war against terrorism, including $406 billion for Iraq.

The Congressional Budget Office reported in October 2007 that Iraq accounts for 421 billion, or 70 per cent, of the $602 billion that the Congress has authorised for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The CBO estimates that the total cost of the two wars could reach $2.4 trillion by 2017 including interest on the debt, with Iraq accounting for 70 per cent of the spending, or $1.68 trillion. But even that pales by comparison with estimates put forward by Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, a Harvard professor, in a book called “The Three Trillion Dollar War: the True Cost of the Iraq Conflict.”

According to the authors, the United States is spending $12 billion a month in 2008 to prosecute the war in Iraq. When Afghanistan is included, US war spending bumps up to $16 billion a month.

Looking out to 2017, they contend the conflict will cost more than three trillion dollars.

They argue that administration cost estimates omit several crucial factors: bonuses offered to attract and retain troops; health coverage for veterans, replacing military equipment; and the impact of the war on the price of oil, which in five years has soared from $25 to more than $100 a barrel.

“I think they throw everything in the kitchen sink into the survey, including the interest on the national debt. So it seems like an exaggerated number to us,” said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

The independent Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) says the inflation-adjusted cost of the Iraq war is now far greater than the 1991 Gulf War ($88 billion) and is on the verge of surpassing the Korean War ($456 billion) and the Vietnam War ($518 billion).

But spending on Korea and Vietnam accounted a higher percentage of the gross domestic product, CSBA said in a report in September.

The CSBA report estimated the total cost of ongoing military operations in Iraq through 2017 at $835 million to $1.26 trillion.

“However, projections of funding requirements for FY (fiscal year) 2008 and, especially, beyond are highly speculative,” it said.

“These costs could vary dramatically, depending primarily on how many troops the United States keeps in Afghanistan and Iraq, and for how long.”

Iraq: a three trillion dollar war?

 

[solid snake]

All I want to know is where is all of the money from Iraq's oil going?

To only a few American contractors and businessmen.

 

[Neo]

Heavy human cost of Iraq war​

BAGHDAD: In five years, the war in Iraq has killed tens and probably hundreds of thousands of civilians, and well over 4,000 members of US-led foreign forces.

According to reports compiled by various organisations, the following figures can be estimated:

Civilians: No agreement on the overall number, as many deaths are never reported in the media. In January this year, the UN World Health Organisation and the Iraqi government released a study concluding that between 104,000 and 223,000 Iraqis had died violently since the US-led invasion of March 2003. As of March 20, the independent Iraq Body Count website, spoke of close to 90,000 deaths, of whom over a quarter - 24,000 - died in 2007. At the high end of the scale, in September 2007 a British polling institute estimated the total number of civilian deaths at 1.2 million.

Iraqi forces: The Icasualties.org web site, based only on published reports, shows that around 8,000 members of the Iraqi security forces have died since the invasion. However, last year the Iraqi government put the figure at 12,000.

US-led foreign forces: A total of more than 4,283 deaths have been recorded. As of March 20, regular US forces had lost at least 3,990 troops, according to an AFP tally based on icasualties.org. Among other countries that still have forces in Iraq, the death tolls as of March 20 were 175 soldiers for Britain, 18 for Ukraine, 13 for Bulgaria and eight for Denmark. For countries which took part in earlier stages of the occupation, but have now withdrawn their forces, the main losses were 32 soldiers for Italy, 22 for Poland and 11 for Spain.

Other deaths: Although it refused to take part of the US-led invasion, Turkey has mounted several military operations against Turkish Kurd guerrillas in northern Iraq. It said it had lost 27 soldiers and killed at least 240 Kurds.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[Always Neutral]

All I want to know is where is all of the money from Iraq's oil going?

In case you find the answer to this secret please tx GBP 100,000/- to my HSBC account no 0000120704. Will take two years off and move to Cyprus

Regards