Price of Iraq war now outpaces Vietnam

Price of Iraq war now outpaces Vietnam
John Byrne
Published: Tuesday March 18, 2008


Price only exceeded by World War II

"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," declared President George W. Bush aboard the USS Lincoln in 2003. "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."

Five years later, the Iraq war rages on.

According to two prominent economists, in a study the White House has not disputed, the cost of the war now outpaces the total price of the 12-year US conflict in Vietnam.

It's now nearly double the total cost of the Korean War.

The costs of maintaining a US presence in Iraq now runs a tab of about $435 million a day -- $3 billion a week, or $12 billion a month. The US has siphoned some $500 billion taxpayer dollars into Iraq, for a war that was supposed to be "sharp" and brief. Interest payments add another $615 billion, and the price tag of repairing a depleted military is projected at $280 billion.

Only World War II, in terms of inflation-adjusted dollars, was more expensive, according to a recent study by Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University public finance Professor Laura Bilmes. Both served in the Clinton administration.

Their price tag? $3 trillion. The White House has not disputed the study.
click post title for the rest

The price tag has is going up and the care for the wounded will increase everyday as more and more get wounded and more and more families are left behind when they are killed. This price tag we must never forget we have to pay. This price tag, taking care of the wounded and the families must never be last on the list of bills to pay ever again.