Iraq: The three trillion dollar war?

[Heraclitus]

Do your agree with the Nobel prize wining economist Joseph Stiglitz on the true cost of the US war in Iraq?

I've read the
book, and it makes sense, what do you think?


I've taken a few quotes from this review...

Joseph Stiglitz says that America's adventure in Iraq is more expensive than any war - barring the Second World War - it has ever fought. The superb achievement of this book, however, is how little you do have to take on trust. Its arguments advance methodically, increment by increment, in language that an innumerate arts graduate such as myself can understand.

The backbone of the book, though, is a set of relatively simple sums. The Iraq war - whatever you think about the political casus belli - was presented to the American public as a free lunch. Bush's economic adviser Larry Lindsey said the war could cost $200 billion and "would be good for the economy".

That's just the operating costs, mind. The core of this book's argument is that the cash accounting process the administration uses is a cheat: it counts what's being spent now, but keeps promissory notes off the books.

The reason Americans are not yet feeling the pinch is that the government is running its war on the never-never. Rather than raise taxes, they're running up the deficit. Rather than set aside money to pay veterans' benefits, or invest in the systems that will administer them, they're leaving it to the grandchildren.

The lesson for whoever inherits the Oval Office next year is, to paraphrase Larkin, "get out as quickly as you can and don't have any wars yourself".

[Heraclitus]

But on the other hand 3 trillion dollars probably isn’t that much, by the time your children will have to “pay the price” that will be what, like a million Euros?

[Julian Delphiki]

Yeah, real money rules .

[OneFootInTheGrave]

not to forget that when Larry made the prediction this happened

On September 15, 2002 in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Lindsey estimated the high limit on the cost of the Bush administration's plan in 2002 of invasion and regime change in Iraq to be 1-2% of GNP, or about $100-$200 billion.[1] Mitch Daniels, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, subsequently discounted this estimate as "very, very high" and stated that the costs would be between $50-$60 billion.[2] This lower figure was endorsed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.[2]

& Larry resigned from his position soon after that comment...

[C0ckney]

i read about this book in the times a few weeks ago. i wasn't totally convinced by some of the arguments put forward, but i can't claim to know too much about that sort of thing. it looks an interesting read however.

[chequita guevara]

This is why I want to leave the country. Even if my company goes big time and I become a millionaire, that'll be like what, ten Euros?

[Riesstiu IV]

This is probably the most pathetically wasteful and ill waged war in our entire history.

[chequita guevara]

No, Vietnam was still more wasteful.

[Harovan]

Come to Europe, Che! We're all commies here!

Except, perhaps, Winston.

[chequita guevara]

Do you have a part of Europe that is warm all year round and more sunny than cloudy and speaks English?

[Harovan]

No, but as Floridan inhabitant you ought to know Spanish, comprende amigo?

[Riesstiu IV]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Do you have a part of Europe that is warm all year round and more sunny than cloudy and speaks English?

I hear if you go to Paris and proclaim how you will bring the American way of life to the French people, you get a positive reaction.

Also, the commie stereotype died after the cartoon riots. We think Europe is full of angry muslims.

[Garth Vader]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Do you have a part of Europe that is warm all year round and more sunny than cloudy and speaks English?

I can get you 2 out of 3 here. You'd be happy with 6 months of cold right?

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Do you have a part of Europe that is warm all year round and more sunny than cloudy and speaks English?

Ibiza

[DanS]

No doubt the way we fight wars is fantastically expensive. However, the article description is political in that it counts all of the contingent costs that were experienced and criticizes the pre-war accounting based upon it. Before the war, there was no way of knowing how many contingencies would be exercised. It turns out that a lot were exercised.

Also, even now we have only a vague knowledge of the ultimate outcome of these contingencies. As an example, we do not know the final rate at which the veterans will be claiming temporary or permanent disability. As these things work, it could be a relatively small number, or a relatively huge number. Is there a Gulf War II Syndrome? We may not know for a decade or two. It's nowhere near precise enough to use the Gulf War I numbers as surrogates.

The $16 billion operating costs per month budget is suspect. It's true that this might be the budgeted amount, but the Pentagon throws all sorts of items in there that aren't war-specific operating costs. F.e., they probably shift as much of their maintenance into the war budget as they can, even though these items would need maintenance anyway -- albeit sometimes at a lesser rate. Point being, don't take the headline budget burn rate at face value.