War Costing $720 Million Each Day, Group Says
CHICAGO — The money spent on one day of the Iraq war could buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity, according to the American Friends Service Committee, which displayed those statistics on large banners in cities nationwide Thursday and Friday.
The war is costing $720 million a day or $500,000 a minute, according to the group’s analysis of the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard public finance lecturer Linda J. Bilmes.
The estimates made by the group, which opposes the conflict, include not only the immediate costs of war but also ongoing factors such as long-term health care for veterans, interest on debt and replacement of military hardware.
“The wounded are coming home, and many of them have severe brain and spinal injuries, which will require round-the-clock care for the rest of their lives,” said Michael McConnell, Great Lakes regional director of the AFSC, a peace group affiliated with the Quaker church.
The $720 million figure breaks down into $280 million a day from Iraq war supplementary funding bills passed by Congress, plus $440 million daily in incurred, but unpaid, long-term costs.
But some supporters of the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq say that even if the war is costly, that fact is essentially immaterial.
“Either you think the war in Iraq supports America’s national security, or not,” said Frederick W. Kagan, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “If you think national security won’t be harmed by withdrawing from Iraq, of course you would want to see that money spent elsewhere. I myself think that belief, on a certain level, is absurd, so the question of focusing on how much money we are spending there is irrelevant.”
The war’s unpaid long-term costs do not include “macro-economic consequences” described by Bilmes and Stiglitz, including higher oil prices, loss of trade because of anti-American sentiments and lost productivity of killed or injured U.S. soldiers.
In 2006, Bilmes, who was an assistant secretary of commerce under President Bill Clinton, and Stiglitz, a former chief economist at the World Bank, placed the total cost of the Iraq war at more than $2.2 trillion, not counting interest. The American Friends group used cost breakdowns and interest projections from the Congressional Budget Office to calculate the daily cost of war emblazoned on the banners flown in Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago and other cities.
The banners show what this could buy in terms of health care, Head Start programs, new elementary schools, free school lunches, renewable energy and hiring new teachers. Protest organizers say they hope to turn more people against the war by laying out its true financial impact.
“I think people are becoming more aware of these guns or butter questions,” said Gary Gillespie, director of the group’s Baltimore Urban Peace Program, which displayed the banners in the Baltimore suburb of Bel Air on Friday. “But when you talk about $720 million a day, even people who work on this issue are shocked by the number and shocked by what could have been done with that money. War has no return — you’re not producing a product.”
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
Pehaps I missed somethng, but I thought the daily cost of the war figures was pretty well known in 2002. This is a well written and swell reminder however, of how stupid humanity and governments can be. I understand Halliburton and all of its many subs, including Blackwater, etc, collect about 20% of this money figure. That must be some “benefit” for our shakey economy.
Hey mister, can you spare a dime?
That’s what y’all get for voting Democrat instead of voting for Nader.
All that money is going to other corporations instead of to We the People Inc.
ezeflyer.. Yup. Plus, all that money has been going to the corporations since FDR’s finalizing of the Federal Reserve. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/22/4014/
Well, gosh - no WONDER we “can’t afford” health care for children. You know, the bill that George is going to veto because it’s “too expensive”. What’s too expensive is George.
Incidentally, have you heard that Karl Rove’s emails did NOT all get erased as he’d hoped when he quit? Greg Palast set up a very similar website to Rove’s, and quite a few of them were misdirected to Greg Palast. Check out http://brasschecktv.com for the full story.
Sweet Jesus, what the people could do with that money.
iwarrior said:
“Sweet Jesus, what the people could do with that money.”
And all We the People have to do to get it is to incorporate.
Keep in mind that nobody is actually paying for this credit card war and occupation. The debt just piles up.
Have you told your children how much they owe already? Get those 5 year olds to work, if they want to even pay the interest, let alone balance of $9 trillion. Otherwise they’ll owe even more when they grow up and wonder why this generation hated their children this much, and impoverished them.
It’s nice to hear again from the American Empire Institute. Tell us some more about how money grows on trees and this misadministration can spend whatever it wants on Iraq, and the next crisis, and the next.
At what point does America go bankrupt?
America is still paying for WW1 and WW2. Why do the people imagine a vain thing hoping Bush would ever dream of telling the truth. I said from the begining that the war would cost a minuim 3 trillion dollars. I was mocked and laugh at! The elite have shifted the tax burden under the leadership of former Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon who caused the great depression when the nation realized it had no money in its treasury from the 5 tax breaks he gave the wealthy who shifted the tax burden to the non-wealthy who had no money! The non-wealthy have been paying for every american military action since FDR. Our tax structure is design on kissing the butt of the wealthy in this countrty! It would be cheaper to get rid of this nations wealthy by taking away their citizenship and start over without them by deporting them all! The wealthy have committed economic treason! They are using america has their personal slush fund in conquering Iraq for Exxon-Mobil! I wonder how many of our elected officials have been given cheap oil stocks to buy their loyality! Treason is on a massive scale by the oil companies and Washington! The truth is that JD Rockefeller found oil in the middle east to avoid paying taxes in America and to avoid Washington having any control over his companies that the anti-sherman act had broken up!Corporate law was written and created to circumvent the constitution and the Bill of Rights. Corporate law is a form of long term treason where international corporation like those who gave money to Hitler to build up Germany’s economy by weakinging America economy! Bush’s war in Iraq is a war against us! He deliberatly went to war without no regard for this nation. I am sure he will be well paid after he leaves office! He prayed for war before he came to office. His father if he had been re-elected would have gone back to war in IrAq. President Clinton was impeached because he did not obey the orders of the Bush adminstratin fanatical foot soldiers. Bush war to go back to Iraq was written in stone and ojn the wall before he became President! If Clinton gets elected the war will go on! She is a Yale graduate! This is Yale’s war. What the press have failed to ask President Bush Jr. is-has he or as he ever been on the pay role of the CIA. Bush Jr is a covert CIA officer who is on the domestic pay role of the CIA like his father! It is a felony for a covert CIA officer to be a federaly elected official without disclosing that he is a CIA officer! It is a crime!
If we had all voted for Nader, they would have shot him or crashed his plane.
GREAT ARTICLE, Our adversarys are not on the battle field in Iraq! We created those foe’s. Americas real enemies are right here at home and we elected them. Our current leadership will bankrupt America both financially and morally. What we need is a good old fashion revolution. Thats what it will take if “we the people” what to restore America values (pre-Bush) and protect the Constitution.
Ahh, come on now. The Carlyle Group is doing well, the Saudis are reaping windfall profits, the nuclear weapons groups are salivating. Every arms manufacturer in the world is turning out weapons and ammo as fast as they can and they are still back ordered.
Surely you are not going to quibble just because people are poor, sick, jobless, hungry and homeless. According to the neocons, that is the natural order of things. They have it all, and we get to beg.
Another first for bush and this illegal
attack on Iraq is he is selling UNITED STATES OF AMERICA citizenship to people who will take up a gun and commit murder for him. bush has destroyed the constitution and the respect of having American citizenship.
People and organizations who are interested in displaying AFSC’s Cost of War Banners should be in touch with the AFSC offices closest to them. You can find this information by going to AFSC’s web site: www.afsc.org.
Joseph Gerson
Director of Programs
AFSC-New England Regional Office
$720 Million a day? Cool!!
Thanks a bunch our troops, for continuing to squander our, our children’s and our grand children’s future.
How can I not but support our troops!!!!!
They should take a couple of days off and use the money to fix the electricity grids in Iraq, maybe even repair the water treatment plants we bombed to rubble.
slightly off topic:
Vote in the Iowa Poll for Kucinich.
http://qctimes.com/articles/2007/09/22//news/local/doc46f14344b7390980655136.txt?showComments=true
I just voted & Kucinich & Obama are neck in
neck. If thhis link doesn’t work it is the
Quad City newspaper, today’s date
oops — Quad City Times, Sat.Sept.22,2007
War is the prefered way to concentrate wealth and power.
Peace diversifies wealth and power.
We are part of this system that fights over, then burns a precious, non-renewable resource to support an unsustainable way of life. (Paul Hawken-”Blessed Unrest”–highly recommend)
The people who benefit from the war economy are aware that the human race is in a survival situation and are quite sure that their personal survival is the best chance for the whole race.
The rest of us have a different view.
As an aside, consider how car culture has become so ingrained in our world view that we cannot see out of that box. What the bush-elite want to do now is to plant permanent WAR on that spot. So that virtually everyone will be hard wired to a state of war and permanent concentration of wealth, ignoring the obvious realities, of course.
Do check out the Hawken book above. It is clear and astounding.
The money spent on one day of the Iraq war could buy homes for almost 6,500 Iraqis. Actually this looks like a house, healthcare and a full retirement could have been provided to the entire population of Iraq with the tax money our ‘government’ has squandered (stolen) so far.
Where’s my house, healthcare and retirement?
Maybe we should all camp out at Waldon Pond and enjoy the short time we have remaining before the Neo-Con’s Armagedon.
I’m sure that Big Brother will make it all well again with another tax cut for the filthy rich…
How about Kagan explain exactly what he means by American national security, and explain exactly how the US occupation of Iraq helps his concept of American national security? Then we would see whose beliefs are absurd.
Oh yes, Mr. Frederick W. Kagan, resident moron at the American Enterprise Institute, I think that national security will be harmed by remaining in Iraq. I think that the world will hate us more every minute until your head blows up and mine, too. Or maybe we’ll die from bugs. Whatever the method, it will be the intemperate choices of fools like you, sir, that did it, sir.
I’m not worried. It’s just Monopoly money anyway. The dollar just fell from $1.00 to $0.65 so doesn’t that mean our debt just shrunk by 35%? A couple of more drops like that and we’re out of debt. Our money may be worthless, but we won’t owe anyone anything. The wealthy don’t care if our money becomes wallpaper. They’ve got the gold and they’ll be just fine. Everything is unfolding according to plan.
When Bush is gone who can we blame next?
DR. ZIMMERMAN
yourselves…………..
ALOHA !!
GOVERNMENT IS ONLY AS HONEST AS ITS MONEY …
There’s a line from “The Last Emperor” — in his voice over, the ex-emperor says of the officials who remained in the Forbidden City, “Why did they stay? To steal everything they could.”
But one can never put a pricetag on nationalist vanity. Like any aging roué, the debauched duopoly will continue to vote more and more to the war. As the decrepit Diseemblocratic Senator Barbara Mikulski brayed the other day “I will never vote to cut funding for our troops!” by which she means, of course, that she can’t afford to cut the funding because it would make those war services industries among her constituents re-tool for some non-destructive work . . .
America is being stolen from under the feet average citizens walk on…. They are now starting to have their suspicions….But the real tragedy is they are so hoodwinked; they are totally oblivious to the FULL EXTENT OF THIS WHOLESALE THEFT…
Ron September 24th, 2007 12:06 am
Their only one problem with your simple economic analysis….This CRACK UP BOOM complete with the biggest house price, credit market and dollar value IMPLOSION; will lead to a prolonged recession or even depression…this will lead to Middle and Working Class Impoverishment…The Uber Rich like Cheney etal have already shifted their investments off-shore to Tax Havens in EURO Denominated Investments….
Antiwar Radio: Charles Goyette Interviews Matt Taibbi
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2007/09/21/matt-taibbi/
Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine discusses the unbelievable extent of the Republicans’ corruption in Iraq and the complete and total lack of accountability.
The Great Iraq Swindle
How Bush Allowed an Army of For-Profit Contractors to Invade the U.S. Treasury
–From Issue 1034 Posted Aug 23, 2007 8:51 AM
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16076312/the_great_iraq_swindle/print
RON, I never thought of it that way, you may have a good point. Perhaps the word gold should be subed for silver. For example, if you have a 1955 silver quarter, in 1955 you could have purchased a gallon of high test gasoline and had enough left for a twelve oz bottle of Pepsi and two pennys for change.
With that same quarter today, you can purchase a ,___uhhhh ___ a, I can’t thnk of anything right off hand except perhaps put it in a parking meter fo a thirty minute parking spot. In other words, silver is highly under valued. Our dollar has lost over 94% of it’s value since 1955. So if we buy silver right now, before the dollar loses the 6% value left. Then wait a few months and with that quarter in silver, we could buy a tankfull of gasoline, or a cart full of groceries.
Some of this war-blood money comes back into the US, and its hard to estimate how much goes overseas. However there is also a cost of food, oil, materials and parts to get from overseas, since the US cannot make all its own. All those mercenaries must be putting their cash away, and I bet that they are not keeping it in US dollars, but are converting it to currencies more likely to keep value. So this is a real drain of US dollars to awash the currency markets, depreciating the US dollar. Where does the dollars go? Eventually you won’t be able to afford the mercenaries fees, because the value of your dollar will fall so low, they will demand more to convert to stable foreign cash, or be paid directly in foreign coin, thus indicating the end of the war is near. The price of this war in US dollars, and a barrel of oil, will rise astronomically as the currency drops. By this stage, oil shortages will be biting, and you won’t yet own Iraq, and it won’t save you. Collapse and starvation may follow.
Why did 23 U.S. ‘DEMOCRATIC’ Senators vote in favor of denouncing MoveOn.Org for its advertisement questioning the credibility of General Petreaus?
FOLLOW THE MONEY$!$!$!$!$!$!$
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H337V_pwnbw
Love,
mom
Doing the math: $720M/day = $2.40/day for each man, woman and child in the US or $5.50/day for each household, or $2,000 per household per year. If you assume only 1/2 of households pay any taxes, that’s $4,000 per year for taxpaying households.
Thank goodness our grandchildren will have to pay for it; not us.
Maybe that’s what Kagan was referring to when he said what we’re spending there is “irrelevant.”
Great Estimates, However One Cost Ommitted
The Devaluation of the dollar is costing Americans trillions of dollars in increased prices of: Oil and imported goods.
In 2001 $.89 American got 1 Euro. Today, $1.40 American gets you 1 Euro. Which translates into a real devaluation of 54% in six years.
The cost of a barrel of oil that went for $50 had to increase by 54% or $27.00 which would make it $81.00….Which is about where it is at right now.
The oil companies did not struggle with that devaluation they passed it on to the consumers at “2.50 to $3.00″ a gallon of gas and their profits skyrocketed.
Then Honda and every company that has imports has to charge 54% more for its cars.
Iraq is not National Security, it is OIL. Afghanistan is not National Security, it is OIL.
The Islamic Militants (100,000) that the CIA recruited along with the ISI of Pakistan in “Operation Cyclone 1981-1992″ were trained, armed, and paid by American Taxpayers to become the “Enemy” and so that Cheney and Company could have a “50 Year Global War Against Terrorism”
Who was behind 9/11? Who has terrorized the American People with: lies, torture, spying,?
Who has made billions from this scandalous invasion of another country for its natural resource, OIL?
It seems that bush is the President of the United States of Iraq. All I ever hear him talk about is Iraq this and Iraq that. Occasionally Iran is thrown in to add spice.
Not a word is ever mentioned about America. Nothing is said about American unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, and crime. This silence has gone on for years.
bush says that I’m in danger. I agree. I’m in danger of having my home foreclosed on, a bridge collapsing under me, not being able to afford my healthcare, getting laid off, buildings falling on me, hurricanes, and getting mugged.
Even though bush wasn’t elected, he assumed the position as President. (of the United States) It falls upon him to take care of these domestic issues. Somebody please wake him up and tell him what country he’s the ’supposed’ leader of. He’s completely out of touch with his own country. I doubt very much that he even knows the words to the National Anthem.
KEM PATRICK September 24th, 2007 8:10 am
You said I was goofier than you, both you and Ron are talking gobbledygook. I repeat the worst CRACK UP BOOM in American History is underway with the biggest house price bust up, credit market and dollar value IMPLOSION. This will lead to a prolonged recession or even depression…In REAL DOLLAR TERMS discounted for Inflation EVERYONE LOSES IN AMERICA…The buying power of the Dollar GOES DOWN, cost of imports goes up, the House Valuation ATM machine ceases to exist with the credit Squeeze…The cost of your groceries in REAL TERMS goes up…Your silver coins valuation goes nowhere since $US dollar buying power goes down…. Unless you invest in a resource rich country and shift all your investments there, in that countries denominated currency….
I repeat Cheney and other smart ass uber rich bastards have already shifted their investments off-shore to Tax Havens in EURO Denominated Investments….
herbert r chersonsky September 24th, 2007 10:20 am
CORRECT and remember the M3 [thats Money Supply] is UNPUBLISHED to hide the truth about who’s paying for the BUSHCO’s OIL WARS, amongst other things. Oh I nearly forgot M3 is running [increasing] at a brisk 14%. So between robbing consolidated revenue for this Iraqi/Afghanistan Fiasco out of Tax Receipts the FED is simply monetizing the additional Debt nutjob Bu$h is incurring. Any decent Economist worth his salt would suggest simply, that the Cost/Benefit Analysis would have indicated in the LONG RUN it would have been cheaper to BUY Iraq’s OIL not try to steal it. Thus LOSING America’s International Goodwill, hard earned reputation since WWII and the 2.5 Trillion Dollars… And this is not considering the 4000 dead US solders, 65,000 wounded US solders, 1 Million dead Iraqis, 4 Million Iraqi Refugees, etc etc
Put differently, for America the Opportunity Cost of NOT having this money spent at home on health, education, housing, broken infrastructure, veteran affairs etc etc
IS SIMPLY TOO HORRENDOUS TO CONSIDER…
Perhaps one day when George W Bush is incarcerated in a mental home, a Psychiatric Nurse might try to explain the DAMAGE he did to America while he is dribbling out the corner of his mouth high on sedatives….
while ever you the people vote for the status quo then you will get the status quo. The Clintons are no better than the Bush gang, the record proves it. What about the health care scheme put forward by the Clintons someone asks, Oh yes that scam, put forward knowing full well it had no chance in the world of becoming a reality.
Was’t it Clinton who ordered missiles to be fired at Sudan and Afgahnistan on flimsy evidence that OBL was operating there, that same OBL who attended an American hospital in Dubai in 2001 to have kidney treatment.
The sheeple better wake up and become people again, turn off the propoganda machines and flags and take the country back. Then find out where all the money is and confiscate it to create health and wealth for all Americans.
ok everybody,
please take a good look at Dr. Ron Paul….PLEASE!
Kem, I think you’ll find the oil will in the very near future be quoted in Euro’s, Saudi Arabia, if reports I’ve received are correct, are in the initial stages of switching. This will have a devastating effect on the US dollar’s value against major currencies.
Ok.
No. 1 Pile up all Municipal, State and Federal public debt, all corporate debt and all personal debt. America IS bankrupt. It’s also the world’s largest lender, market and the US$ is THE MOST HELD FORM OF FOREIGN CURRENCY RESERVE. Nations use foreign currency to keep the value of their own. The Yen is down, buy more with USD to reduce the supply. All this pretty much gave the Fed a licence to print money while keeping the dollar’s value solid. Which it has to pay for Chinese B.U.M. Equipment. Oh, and the US$ is the only currency in which oil can be sold, as per OPEC. Had something to do with the US not nuking Damascus for getting all growly on Israel.
Not a single of the world’s central bankers, NOT A SINGLE ONE, is going to stand up and say that 80% of their foreign corrency isn’t even worth the storage fee. Not ONE. The Emperor is naked but the kid’s on ritalin.
Personally I don’t know which generation anyone is talking about when people wonder if their children will wonder why they hate them. I’m 32 years old. I had absolutly NOTHING to do with causing the absolute reeking mess I live in. I know my “parents” don’t hate me. That’s because they’re most spoiled, irresponsible self centered little shits the world has ever had the displeasure of having to support. My parents are past 60 and they still act like teeangers. And they still think it’s 1974. “Ok, you’ve got a steady job, and you’re telling me you can’t afford a house AND a car. Honey, are you doing drugs again??”
The only thing I’ll have to say to my children would be “I’m sorry baby. I’m so so sorry”.
Run out of money for the war? Just raise taxes on the middle class, that will do the trick.
“It’s also the world’s largest lender, market and the US$ is THE MOST HELD FORM OF FOREIGN CURRENCY RESERVE.”
Go down to Walmart and buy all the toilet Paper you can get your hands on…Open them up and write a Dollar sign on every leaf…. Thats what the US$ will be worth shortly as a Fiat currency… The only reason the Chinese and for that matter the Japanese the 2 largest holders of US treasury Notes aren’t dumping them to the highest bidder is they are up to their eyeballs in what is becoming a Trillion plus Dollar game of Poker… Who will flinch first or which country wants to screw up their own currency index, weighted trade index, GNP, GDP, balance of payments, employment rate, base lending rate etc etc
I’m sure Bu$h has no idea what horrendous financial mess he’s directly and indirectly caused, that will take generations to recover from…His economics Professor tried to warn America back in 2001 what an ignorant, arrogant, incurious, dull and obnoxious little shit he was…
SIMONHHH, I said you were just as goofy as I am, not goofier. Of course that was when we were joking about some dumb thing. Buttttt, now I do believe, __ you may have passed me up there, at least for this thread and it isn’t some dumb thing this time.
I agreee with you, I am certain we are on the verge of a depression. Therefore, I suggested we buy silver now before the price of silver goes way up, which it will if a depression hits. I said our dollar is practically worthless now and silver is still a bargain, silver is way un-dervalued. Therefore, when our dollar is worth a penny or less on the dollar, silver will have value, just as gold does. Right now, gold is not a bargain, nor will it be anytime soon. It’s better than our dollar but it is no bargain to purchase it. __ Silver is.__ So why do you think that my ‘valued and expert’ opinion is goofy? Did you by chance mis-read what I wrote? Nana na-na-na-naaaa. Goffy-goofy-goofy, pants on fire.
As a matter of fact, I have a two years supply of toilet paper from the dollar store, not Wal-Mart. We aren’t making counterfit bills with it. When the depression hits, we don’t wish to be using corn cobs or leaves. With corn cobs you soak them in a can of water to keep them nice and soft. You use a red cob first, then a white cob to see if you need another red one. They are excellent for fertlaizer BTW, only we don’t have anyplace near to buy that much corn on the cob and we don’t have a corn crib, we feed our cattle natural grass, hay and soybeans.
OK Kem, I concede, I’m still goofier by a long shot….
Nah, neither one of us is goofy. This is supposed to be a fun learning experience and it is. ___ I happen to admire and like you.
Why has the Common Dreams ’stats page’ been unavailable to everyone for the past week?
Watch for the governments of Canada, Mexico and the U.S.A. start an internal spin machine selling us all on the idea of a free border.A special interest group poll released today says that people in the U.S.A. and in Canada are in favour of having free travel within North America. With this comes the idea of a North American currency which will be known as the amero to compete with the euro.What will be the buy-in rates for the Canadian and U.S.A. dollars as well as the Mexican peso be set at? And who is going to set them?Will those that who hold all the debt of the U.S.A. push to have Canada ,with all our untapped natural resources..including all of the Arctic Region, join the new monetary arrangement at par?Im sure that with the coming spin sell by our respective governments that most Canadians would be ignorant to the fact that joining this monetary arrangement with our dollar anywhere near par would be incredibly STUPID and it would condemm our generation and any that may follow after Mother Nature deals with us to working for the simple right to exsist.At the end of the day the U.S.A. and Canada are the best of friends .And friends should stick together through thick and thin.But does that mean that a typical Canadians standard of living should be much higher than that of a Mexican or U.S.A. citizen? Well who is to say that?I really dont think that anyone realized how fast global warming was going to accelerate.Whether man-made or not….we are in BIG TROUBLE.And at the end of the day you look after your neighbors.