How much did it cost us to get rid of Saddam? OBL? And Quaddafi? Cost - Benefit Analysis Time!

[elehhhhna]

Anybody have some numbers to post?

Seems Obama's way more cost efficient than Bush.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. At least $1B, Europe much more

It also seriously annoyed the European nations that we did not contribute more to the effort as they have come to expect in our world policeman role. Our limited support caused them to overtax their logistics.

[Poll_Blind]

2. I tried to accurately break down the initial strike into the services that $ could have purchased:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x691207">HERE:

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell: USS Valley Forge (CG-50) fired first salvo, launching over (440,000 high-quality dental exams) to disable Libyan anti-aircraft sites. Squdrons of (526,315 prenatal care visits) patroled the skies in search of Libyan fighter jets, ready to launch one of their (214 monthly chemotherapy treatments) at a moment's notice, should the need arise.

He also said that, meanwhile, a lone (520,833,333 nourishing school lunches) patrolled off the coast, providing radar information to (8,124 USDA meat inspector annual salaries) so that (526,315 prenatal care visits) could also deal with Libyan army trucks which may be carrying troops to the front lines.

OnEdit: Al-Jazeera English provided a correction to the number of (high-quality dental exams) launched and I have corrected the figures, where appropriate.

I didn't make up the figures, either. I looked up the price and number of each of the munitions or vehicles and came up with a base rate, which didn't include fuel, manpower or training costs- but which was still a grim reminder that each military action costs us a fortune in more ways than one.

To call my little analysis the very tip of a very, very large iceburg would still probably be an understatement.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16th, 1953

PB

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Soldiers returning with broken bodies and broken minds... you cannot calculate the cost,

it it infinite.

[PETRUS]

4. But we do know who benefits.

Halliburton, et al.