$$$$$$$ How Iraq Trillion $ Could Have Been Spent $$$$$$$

[Dover]

Feb. 4, 2007 — The price tag for the Iraq War is now estimated at $700 billion in direct costs and perhaps twice that much when indirect expenditures are included. Cost estimates vary — Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz puts the total cost at more than $2 trillion — but let's be conservative and say it's only $1 trillion (in today's dollars).

As a number of other commentators have recently written, this number — a 1 followed by 12 zeroes — can be put into perspective in various ways. Given how large the war looms, it doesn't hurt to repeat this simple exercise with other examples and in other ways. ...>

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/WhosCounting/story?id=2844304&page=1

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. why don't we do something about it?

DU should start a newspaper letter writing campaign. Let's gather all the facts we can - budget needs, etc, compare the proposed Bush admin funding of those programs, and contrast it with the Trillion being wasted on arms and Iraq.

[T Wolf]

2. Why is it that the pukes only like to spend money on death and

destruction?

Just think how much better the world could be if they took their profit-motive and limited it to businesses that actually produced something of benefit. And war is, at its core, simply a business to them.

If only...

[LynzM]

3. Puts it into somewhat more understandable perspectives

Heard from a friend that it's 1/3 of the annual budget at this point. Anyone know if that's accurate?