Re: SC33

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=DOR20070103&articleId=4325

Grand Illusion: Costs of War and Empire

...........The 2007 Pentagon budget, which pays for normal personnel, procurement and operational expenses, is up to $462 billion. The budget bill passed the Senate in September by a vote of 100 to 0, with virtually no debate. It includes $85 billion for weapons (a 7 percent increase) and seven new warships. It includes $24 billion to "reset" army and marine corps equipment, which is wearing out six times faster than expected because of the war. In a novel turn, the House and Senate decided to vote simultaneously on the regular budget and the fall supplement, which came to $70 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan, making a total outlay for fiscal 2007 of $532.8 billion, with the next supplemental bill—a big one—already on its way. This budget does not include costs for nuclear weapons—set at $22 billion for next year—which are allocated to the Energy Department.

Despite these immense outlays, budget analysts are warning of a coming financial train wreck, because the appropriations—in every category—fall short of the true costs of the war and the empire. Today the U.S. is spending $2 billion per week in Iraq, nearly all of it from emergency spending bills that add up to $380 billion thus far. The total for Afghanistan is $100 billion. These figures do not include disability and health payments for returning troops, inducements for soldiers to serve additional deployments, extra pay for reservists and National Guard members, and additional foreign aid to supportive nations. When these costs are included, along with the Pentagon's unprecedented dependence on expensive private contractors, the bill for five years of involvement in Iraq is expected to run at least $1.5 trillion, all of it added to the federal debt. Economist Joseph Stiglitz and public finance specialist Linda Bilmes estimate that $2 trillion is more realistic.

That comes to $18,000 per household—a far cry from what Americans were told to expect at the outset, when Rumsfeld said the war would cost under $50 billion, and Paul Wolfowitz said Iraq's oil would finance the nation's reconstruction. The U.S. could have fixed Social Security or provided health insurance for all uninsured Americans for the next half-century with the amount it is spending in Iraq. As it is, since the U.S. is borrowing to pay nearly the entire bill, it faces interest costs of approximately $300 billion for an offensive war of choice..................

We are still in Iraq and Afganistan, running up more debt, and from the looks of things, we won't be leaving for quite a while. If Bush is crazy enough to attack Iran or Syria, what immense debt would insue from those conflicts? Massive amounts of energy, resources, and funds are going into these errant and immoral military conquest perpetrated by the Bush Adminstration. He has gone far down the path of wrecking this country, economically, and regarding the US's reputation with the rest of the world.