Cost Of Iraq War Could Top $2 Trillion: Study

[Mark E. Smith]

Boston (Reuters) - The cost of the Iraq war could top $2 trillion, far above the White House's pre-war projections, when long-term costs such as lifetime health care for thousands of wounded U.S. soldiers are included, a study said on Monday.

Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes included in their study disability payments for the 16,000 wounded U.S. soldiers, about 20 percent of whom suffer serious brain or spinal injuries.

They said U.S. taxpayers will be burdened with costs that linger long after U.S. troops withdraw.

"Even taking a conservative approach, we have been surprised at how large they are," said the study, referring to total war costs. "We can state, with some degree of confidence, that they exceed a trillion dollars."

Before the invasion, then White-House budget director Mitch Daniels predicted iraq would be "an affordable endeavor" and rejected an estimate by then White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey of total war costs at $100 billion to $200 billion as "very, very high."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060110/ts_nm/iraq_cost_dc

Of course, the real challenge is to find something that an official from the Bush administration claimed to be true that actually was.