Iraq war to cost two billion - No Two Trillion Dollars

The war could be two trillion dollars, just how much is that anyway! Most of us can not imagine that kind of money.

Two Trillion bucks and they couldn't find money for armor for the troops. Remember the fiasco over US troops going into battle and they did not have the proper armor. Some families were trying to buy it and send it over. The Pentagon decided not to make the purchase. Why would they do that. Was this decision made based on a cost benefit analysis? Was this an economic decision? See the report in the New York Times "Pentagon Study Links Fatalities to Body Armor" by MICHAEL MOSS.

The armor was available in 2003. The field commanders were screaming for it. The Pentagon said no. As the mother or father, son or daughter, grandparent, spouse or best friend would you have supported this decision?

The worst is the news that most of the troops don't have the new armor even today. The Army is still deciding on what to buy, the Marines just ordered it. That's almost three years after the new improved armor was available. That's just crazy. In March of 2003 Dr. Craig T. Mallak military's medical examiner, told a military panel in 2003 that the information "screams to be published."

This is incredible. While George Bush stood on a ship declaring "we won", hundreds more American troops would die because they did not have the right armor. Forget all the stories you hear about the secret intelligence we don't have, we don't do anything with what we do have.

It brings me back to the Pentagon's decision not to act on the information when Dr. Craig T. Mallak told them in 2003. They infact deliberately kept the information secret for two plus years.

I am sure George Bush and his gang of thieves did not want this information public before the 2004 election. It wouldn't do that Commander in Chief Bush sent men to battle without first picking up the best available protection for these brave men and women. Not when he was saying that they had the best.

Back to the two trillion dollar cost of the war as reported today by the Guardian. The estimate comes from a paper to be delivered tomorrow, January 8th and is written by Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor who won the Nobel prize for economics in 2001, and Linda Bilmes, a Harvard budget expert.

They estimate that the cost of treating and caring for troops suffering brain damage will cost 35 billion dollars alone. The economists say the increased defense spending as a result of the war, veterans' disability payments and demobilization costs, the economists predict the budgetary costs of the war alone could approach $1 trillion.

All this information comes a day after six American soldiers and 182 Iraqian civilians were killed in one of the worst days in months according to the Washington Post. The Post goes on to comment "The bloodshed comes at a time of increasing Bush administration discussion of drawing down slightly the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, now that the election there is complete." How many more are going to die? Just how likely is it they will be able to move troops out? Two trillion dollars and in the end will have another dictatorship in Iraq?

America will be paying a price for years. Social Security is threatened, Republicans are trying to cap Medicare and prescription drug coverage. The price paid by American soldiers killed due to Pentagon money squeezing, those wounded and their families, will be much higher. They of course will pay for the war long after George W. Bush builds a library to house his flight suit.


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