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  2. What Can You Get for $1.2 Trillion?

What Can You Get for $1.2 Trillion?

By grrlscientist on January 18, 2007.

What can you get for $1.2 trillion? Universal health care for uninsured Americans? Hey, as an uninsured American, I'd sure like that! How about universal preschool for all American children? Enough money to fulfill post 9-11 security recommendations? Or how about more money for cancer research? Or immunizations for the world's children that would protect them from childhood diseases? Or better yet, why not fund all of these things? The fact is that we could pay for all these things and still have money left over!

But, no, our country has instead opted to invest all that money -- and more -- into the war on Iraq. We have spent $200 billion each year on the war on Iraq, which adds up to $1.2 trillion since the war began -- far more than the Bush administration ever predicted. This cost doesn't even include all the dead American soldiers, which outnumber the dead from the 9-11 attacks, nor does it consider the hundreds of thousands of dead and maimed Iraqis. Worse, now that Saddam Hussein was been executed, instead of leaving Iraq, we are increasing out military presence there. This war has dragged on longer than World War II, and still, there is no end in sight for us, the Brits, or the Iraqis.

When will we ever learn? The costs of the Iraq War compared to other at-home expenses reveals the GOP's poor money management skills.

Cited story.

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What a colossal waste, on a project that doesn't even have a stated objective, let alone one that's been achieved.

When I was younger, I had trouble with the word prosecuted vs. persecuted. Sometimes, even now, I still have to think about it: if I swipe some lipstick from Wal-Mart, will they take me to court, or just harass me? Anyway, Bush deserves both for his actions on this war. He's fucked it up like he fucks up everything he touches.

The numbers seem a bit off. The military cost of the war is $90 billion a year. I don't know about the health cost, but the increase in oil prices is likely due to Ghawar hitting peak production rather than due to a political disruption.