The soaring costs of the Iraq War Nobel Laureate says 5 trillion

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=371198
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One of the most shocking revelations in his book is just how much the care of the physically and mentally injured from the current conflicts is going to cost our communities, a brutal truth British administrations have glossed over as much as their US counterparts. He and his co-author Linda Blimes now calculate that up to a third of US soldiers come back from war with mental and physical damage, particularly with post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury (TBI). In families with an injured veteran, at least one member is giving up work to be a full-time carer.

In his discussion he produced two truly dreadful and staggering statistics. US veterans returning from current wars are now committing suicide at the rate of 18 per day – a far higher death toll than on the battlefield. Bush's military adventures and huge defence expenditure, now around the $600 billion mark annually, means that by the time he leaves office this winter the US government will have a debt of around $9 trillion. In Bill Clinton's day there was a budget surplus of 2% of GDP.

Though there was much discussion from the floor at the London meeting about the need to cut the losses and for the US to quit Iraq right away, Professor Stiglitz himself was surprisingly uncertain about what could or should happen next. He stressed how unmindful, ignorant even, the Bush administration was of the requirements of international law from the outset of their Iraq adventure. "They didn't understand that under the UN's principles they would be the de facto occupier, have to govern in the interest of the Iraqi people. They didn't realise they couldn't just take over a country in the 19th century (or even 18th century) manner and use it for their own ends."

Now the law, of nations and the international community, is catching up with the conquerors of spring 2003. The UN security council resolution empowering the American and coalition presence as the de facto occupier runs out in December, and won't be renewed. The Americans have been desperately trying to negotiate a security pact with the Baghdad government to take the UNSCR's place. On Friday night, after three months of talks, the Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, definitively rejected the deal which was to be based on a status of force agreement. His government was unwilling to grant the US rights to 58 bases, some huge, in the country, judicial immunity to all US personnel, and the right to arrest, try and extradite any Iraqi citizen.

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Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz calculating today the real cost of the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
5 trillion
Its the Biggest Robbery the World has seen

[DerekJ]

1. Look, if there are 2 trillion unaccounted for, what’s another 5?! It’s chump change.