The three trillion dollar war

[Attero Dominatus]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2915393#2915480

whereismyparty  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sun Feb-24-08 02:04 AM
Original message
The three trillion dollar war   Updated at 1:52 AM
   
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The Bush Administration was wrong about the benefits of the war and it was wrong about the costs of the war. The president and his advisers expected a quick, inexpensive conflict. Instead, we have a war that is costing more than anyone could have imagined.

The cost of direct US military operations - not even including long-term costs such as taking care of wounded veterans - already exceeds the cost of the 12-year war in Vietnam and is more than double the cost of the Korean War.

And, even in the best case scenario, these costs are projected to be almost ten times the cost of the first Gulf War, almost a third more than the cost of the Vietnam War, and twice that of the First World War. The only war in our history which cost more was the Second World War, when 16.3 million U.S. troops fought in a campaign lasting four years, at a total cost (in 2007 dollars, after adjusting for inflation) of about $5 trillion (that's $5 million million, or £2.5 million million). With virtually the entire armed forces committed to fighting the Germans and Japanese, the cost per troop (in today's dollars) was less than $100,000 in 2007 dollars. By contrast, the Iraq war is costing upward of $400,000 per troop.

Most Americans have yet to feel these costs. The price in blood has been paid by our voluntary military and by hired contractors. The price in treasure has, in a sense, been financed entirely by borrowing. Taxes have not been raised to pay for it - in fact, taxes on the rich have actually fallen. Deficit spending gives the illusion that the laws of economics can be repealed, that we can have both guns and butter. But of course the laws are not repealed. The costs of the war are real even if they have been deferred, possibly to another generation.

On the eve of war, there were discussions of the likely costs. Larry Lindsey, President Bush's economic adviser and head of the National Economic Council, suggested that they might reach $200 billion. But this estimate was dismissed as “baloney” by the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. His deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, suggested that postwar reconstruction could pay for itself through increased oil revenues. Mitch Daniels, the Office of Management and Budget director, and Secretary Rumsfeld estimated the costs in the range of $50 to $60 billion, a portion of which they believed would be financed by other countries. (Adjusting for inflation, in 2007 dollars, they were projecting costs of between $57 and $69 billion.) The tone of the entire administration was cavalier, as if the sums involved were minimal...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gue...

Authors: Joseph Stiglitz was chief economist at the World Bank and won the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics in 2001. Linda Bilmes is a lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University


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Earth to DUmmies. War is not cheap and it is rarely breif.

PerfectSage  (460 posts) Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sun Feb-24-08 02:24 AM
Response to Original message
1. So how many Six million dolllar bionic super neo con men would that buy?
   
So how does a cavalier attitude towards the sums involved defeat Bin Laden's strategy for victory by bankrupting the US just like what happened to the USSR in Afghanistan? Oil at $100/barrel/gold at $950/oz, US dollar at near all time lows, budget deficit, trade deficit, housing bubble burst, debt crisis, liquidity crunch, inflation, stagflation.

Put your head between your legs neo cons and kiss your alpha male superpower status goodbye. Rotflmao

I'm not surprised the Bush admin was wrong. I expected quagmire. It took me a while to realize the end of America as a superpower was in the cards.
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trthnd4jstc  Donating Member  (155 posts) Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sun Feb-24-08 02:28 AM
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2. If War Serves The International Bankers, Then Let Us End Money As We Know It.   Updated at 2:28 AM
   
Edited on Sun Feb-24-08 02:50 AM by trthnd4jstc
Imagine a world where love for one another mattered more than whether I have more power, or oil, or money than someone else. Imagine a world where all people, all things, all life mattered. Imagine if every moment mattered.

Please watch this movie. I know it will make some people angry. I also know I may be killed for working for peace and justice. I just want heaven on earth right now. I am so tired of working so hard and going further into debt, and being scared. I am trying so hard, but I think that the International Bankers wish for the majority of us to suffer so they have easy lives, and all of the power. Let us end the Federal Reserve Board, and have the value of money set by the Legislative Branch, as it is written in the US Constitution. Interest is killing the Majority. Only the few move ahead in this world. The world is set up this way.

The name of the movie is Zeitgeist.

http://zeitgeistmovie.com /

And here is a previous version of the same movie. I Reckon the Producers wanted to get this thing out as soon as possible.

http://www.everythingburns.com/wordpress/?p=65

Here is a new type of money. It is called Time Money. The idea is that people get paid based on the amount of time one works.
http://www.siue.edu/~rblain/index.htm

Please be gentle, ye of power. I believe you with the power are sociopaths who have no concern for Humanity, or Life in general. Please end your exploitation for the sake of goodness, and for the sake of Life and the Planet Earth. Please end your lies. Honesty is superior to obsfucation. To ye with power, what will come of your tyranny, but continual heartache, and unnecessary death? Is this what life is about? Living on the backs of the majority of life, while you live lives of ease.
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The conspiracy bullshit has been strong on DU lately

orleans  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Journal  Click to send private message to this author  Click to view this author's profile  Click to add this author to your buddy list  Click to add this author to your Ignore list      Sun Feb-24-08 03:18 AM
Response to Original message
3. yeah. way to go, george! how's it feeling to be the biggest ****-up the world has known? n/t
   
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[Carl]

Imagine a world where love for one another mattered more than whether I have more power, or oil, or money than someone else. Imagine a world where all people, all things, all life mattered. Imagine if every moment mattered.

From a website that spews anger,hatred and bile at anyone who dares disagree with them all the while craving power and control in their every waking moment.

 

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

We should have saved the $10 trillion from the pointless War on Poverty for when we really needed it.

[jukin]

Dollar to yen has been much lower. The dollar to pund is pretty much at historical averages. The new euro currency hasn't been around more than one cycle so is statistically irrelevant. Inflation adjusted oil has almost reached the highs under the incompetent one. Gold has a very long way to equal what it was under the incompetent one.

Meanwhile back in the real world, we have many more services like cable TV, the internets, HDTVs, etc. that need to be paid for.

Mortgage rates are 1/5 what they were under carter. Inflation rate is about 1/3 and the unemployment is less than half.

I forgot there is no history before 2001.

[Bondai]

They never miss a chance to slam the US economy or the the country in general. Are they so stupid that they don't understand that so goes the US economy so goes the rest of the planet? Don't they see that the US economy is the financial engine that drives countless other economies? Why do they wish for their own demise?

[BlueStateSaint]

They never miss a chance to slam the US economy or the the country in general. Are they so stupid that they don't understand that so goes the US economy so goes the rest of the planet? Don't they see that the US economy is the financial engine that drives countless other economies? Why do they wish for their own demise?

If it were Algore in the White House, you'd hear them singing the economy's praises.  It all depends on the party of the man in the White House.

[Attero Dominatus]

They never miss a chance to slam the US economy or the the country in general. Are they so stupid that they don't understand that so goes the US economy so goes the rest of the planet? Don't they see that the US economy is the financial engine that drives countless other economies? Why do they wish for their own demise?

Assuming they know of the effects on the world (and themselves) that a collapse of this country would have, then I would guess it could be some form of self-hatrid, and/or hatrid of humanity in general.

[Airwolf]

The price of Freedom has no limits.