Cost Of War Keeps Spiraling Up

It's bad enough that Bush has invaded a country that was no threat to us, started a civil war with our troops in the middle, and placed those troops in a perpetual no-win situation. But now the costs of that war are spiraling out-of-control.

When he first invaded (after lying to us about weapons of mass destruction), Bush said the war would cost a few billion, including the reconstruction. The costs have gone far beyond that, and virtually no reconstruction has been done. By financing the war in bits and pieces -- $50 billion here and $90 billion there -- Bush has sort of hidden the total cost from the public.

Nobel laureate and economist Joseph Stiglitz has now written a book detailing the actual costs of the war. Stiglitz says the administration has been lowballing the total war cost. He puts the actual cost at around $3 TRILLION -- mostly in borrowed money that our children and grandchildren will have to pay.

Even worse, when you account for other costs such as (1) interest on the war debt, (2) Future war expenses, (3) a continued military presence in Iraq, and (4) lifetime healthcare and counseling for veterans, the cost jumps to $5-$7 trillion. These are staggering numbers.

The whole thing just infuriates me. Republicans are willing to throw away up to $7 trillion on an unnecessary and unwinnable war (not to mention thousands of American lives). But let Democrats talk about universal healthcare, extending unemployment benefits, increasing college and educational assistance, or helping the poor to break the cycle of poverty, and the Republicans scream about "wasting" money we cannot afford.

The Republican mantra -- it's OK to spend trillions on a useless war, but it's wrong to spend a fraction of that to actually help Americans. How anyone could even think of voting Republican this November is beyond me!