That rounds out to $4000 per second.*
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/10/iraq.costs.ap/index.html



And remember, Bush helped achieve the goals of Osama Bin Laden:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/01/binladen.tape/




*So in the time it took you to read this post, thats what.... $40,000 of taxpayer money funding this thing?


As the T-1000 said in Terminator 2: GET. OUT.

[Edited on March 10, 2008 at 3:36 PM. Reason : LOL DID I SAY DAY I MEANT MONTH SOMEONE EDIT THE TITLE PLS]

[Edited on March 10, 2008 at 3:37 PM. Reason : The $4000/second still is true though]

3/10/2008 3:34:45 PM

i was told it was 12 billion a month

3/10/2008 3:41:43 PM

Quote :

"Iraq war now costing $10,000,000,000... per day. "

Quote :

"LOL DID I SAY DAY I MEANT MONTH SOMEONE EDIT THE TITLE PLS]"

Haha as soon as I saw 10 followed by 9 zeroes and the "per day", I was like, "wait wat?", it must be 10 MILLION per day.

But now that you say it is 10 billion/month, it works out to

333 MILLION/day

WTF

3/10/2008 3:43:29 PM

Don't worry guys LOL

3/10/2008 3:45:56 PM

Quote :

"He also said al Qaeda has found it "easy for us to provoke and bait this administration." "All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations," bin Laden said."

Quote :

"As part of the "bleed-until-bankruptcy plan," bin Laden cited a British estimate that it cost al Qaeda about $500,000 to carry out the attacks of September 11, 2001, an amount that he said paled in comparison with the costs incurred by the United States. "Every dollar of al Qaeda defeated a million dollars, by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs," he said. "As for the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars."

Quote :

""It is true that this shows that al Qaeda has gained, but on the other hand it shows that the Bush administration has also gained, something that anyone who looks at the size of the contracts acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-corporations, like Halliburton and its kind, will be convinced. "And it all shows that the real loser is you," he said. "It is the American people and their economy.""

Quote :

"As for President Bush's Iraq policy, Bin Laden said, "the darkness of black gold blurred his vision and insight, and he gave priority to private interests over the public interests of America. "So the war went ahead, the death toll rose, the American economy bled, and Bush became embroiled in the swamps of Iraq that threaten his future," bin Laden said."

Wow, this Been Chillin' dude is 'smart'.

3/10/2008 3:50:00 PM

Quote :

"the darkness of black gold blurred his vision"

better than having your vision blurred by a make-believe god that you're willing to blow yourself up for convince your braindead followers to blow themselves up for

bin Ladin is good at playing up to our media outlets though

3/10/2008 3:52:01 PM

10 Billion a month sounds about right.

Now look what SS and Medicare cost a month, and GROWING.

Iraq has already begun pulling back troops and will continue to do so. Its a "short term" majory financial problem. Entitlement spending is the iceberg at 12 oclock, but no one wants to touch it.

3/10/2008 3:52:34 PM

Tying in with that ^^^

BobbyDigital posted this link earlier:

http://www.powerseductionandwar.com/archives/the_terrorist_d.phtml

It bascially outlines what UBL was saying, for example:

Quote :

"By the nature of its violence and drama, for terrorism is nothing more than an organized spectacle of violence, it is certain to stir emotions. Understanding the logic of terror, it is best to keep the attacks unpredictable, seemingly random. The first seed is sown by unbalancing the mind of the opposing commander. The terrorist act seems to warrant a strong response. In this case, strong replaces intelligent. To find this small group of radicals requires an oversized police force. The chain reaction effect is inevitably set in motion by the harsh reprisal. By entering their space with police or military presence, there are now more targets to hit, more waves of publicity to garner, making them seem larger, feeding their capacity to create the spectacle. Everything becomes imbalanced--society is polarized, disproportionate fear is stirred, more impatience and need for reprisals is manufactured. The desired avalanche is set off."

Anyway, well worth a read.

3/10/2008 3:53:55 PM

I still can't get over the figures...

$BILLION dollar bucks EVERY 3 DAYS???

That's fucked up.




[Edited on March 10, 2008 at 3:58 PM. Reason : ]

3/10/2008 3:54:06 PM

lol i want to go to iraq


i want to see what 1 billion dollar bucks can buy every 3 days

3/10/2008 3:55:54 PM

http://www.goarmy.com


I heard these numbers this morning and I've been doing a lot of thinking about the cost of Iraq, monetarialy and morally. I haven't really come to any conclusions, but I think it is telling that there are plenty of people excited about us staying in Iraq, but few being asked to bear the cost, at least so far.

I dunno, maybe I'll have more on that later.

3/10/2008 3:57:56 PM

i can't beleive we are paying 10billion per month to help these idiots so that they can go around and blow each other up. I honestly wouldn't give a fuck if sadaam was in power gassing them or throwing them in the torture chamber. Much like i do not give a fuck if some poor people starve to death in this country b.c they are to fucking lazy to get a job.

3/10/2008 3:58:00 PM

we spend about 54Billion a month on welfare programs and Medicaid. What does that buy us here? More of it....is the answer.

Alot of that money is spent on US contractors. Its not like we are giving that much money away to Iraq every month. You understand that right?

3/10/2008 4:02:16 PM

jesus, eyedrb, get off it. we get it. SS and medicare are expensive, and need to be reformed.
But at least that money is going to Americans, some/many of who actually need it.

The money for the war was completely discretionary, considering it was a choice that was made to go or not to go 5 years ago. And now that we're stuck with it, it's trillions of dollars that could have gone to better use or could just have been saved anyway, but now it's trillions of more dollars somebody will have to pay back

now shut up already about entitlement spending or take it elsewhere.

3/10/2008 4:24:22 PM

Quote :

"US contractors"

is that why a major one relocated to Dubai?

did they do it to avoid taxes, criminal corruption charges, or both?

3/10/2008 4:34:06 PM

Quote :

"Alot of that money is spent on US contractors. Its not like we are giving that much money away to Iraq every month. You understand that right?"

yeah dick cheney's buddies in halliburton for $900 hammers and $500 toilet seats

3/10/2008 5:46:54 PM

lol i dont know if you meant to do it, but nice independence day reference

3/10/2008 5:53:46 PM

Jesus Christ. By the time our shithead politicians finally pull the troops out, our national debt will be so great that our children's children's children's children's children's children's children's children's children's children will still be paying it off.

Get this administration the hell out of office NOW.

3/10/2008 6:09:27 PM

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

3/10/2008 7:33:01 PM

At $4k a second, in the time it took me to read your post, Iraq cost more than my entire year's tax bill under Clinton, Obama, or McCain per Republican18's thread...

3/10/2008 8:24:07 PM

Quote :

"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"

yeah mission accomplished if the mission was to fuck the economy and discredit the US among the global community.

Hate to say it but at least $10 billion /month paid to some kind of social program might deter some underclass peon of our society from breaking into my car.

3/11/2008 7:50:07 AM

That's one of the things I don't understand about this whole thing. We have no trouble finding $10 billion every month to blow on this war, but we don't have enough money to fix medicare/medicaid/welfare/social security?

3/11/2008 8:05:13 AM

idealistically we would not have to spend money on either.

3/11/2008 8:23:58 AM

Because improving society is not to the advantage to the whole country?

3/11/2008 8:25:08 AM

it is, unless the country is in piles of fiery rubble since they chose to spend $0 on military defense spending

and please spare me the iraq != 9/11 shit

we're talking about what ideally we'd have to spend money on

3/11/2008 9:28:10 AM

3/11/2008 9:35:37 AM

Nobody in their right mind says that we should drop the military budget to zero. However 10 billion/mo for a country that we really have gained nothing from 'liberating' and lost a lot from seems like a bad choice for me.

3/11/2008 9:36:24 AM

To quote the Boonedocks

The Iraq war was our 'nigga moment'

3/11/2008 9:36:34 AM

Quote :

"However 10 billion/mo for a country that we really have gained nothing from 'liberating' and lost a lot from, including 4300 American lives and 100's of thousands of Iraqi lives, seems like a bad choice for me."

It's too bad now that violence appears to be subsiding (ignoring the 8 Americans killed yesterday), the thousands of soldiers that have died in vain will all but be forgotten and we will now turn our squabbling to money issues only

3/11/2008 9:46:16 AM

Don't assume because my post didn't include the number of people dead that I don't care about them. I specifically meant casualties in the 'lost a lot from' as well as international standing.

3/11/2008 9:50:33 AM

You may also be interested to know that the Iraq War is largely financed by supplementals, not the Pentagon's budget.

IOW - Your taxes now are not covering the cost of the war. The financed the war the same way they finance deficit spending--borrowing from China.

3/11/2008 11:20:38 AM

^^ yeah, i know. I just want to make sure that 4300 dead Americans is not just lumped into "we've lost a lot" as we continue to debate about the war

3/11/2008 12:07:39 PM

awesome even better!!! ^^

3/11/2008 12:19:53 PM

SLAM DUNK

IN IT TO WIN IT

NEW WAY FORWARD

FIGHT EM THERE NOT HERE

BRING IT ON

3/11/2008 2:22:55 PM

goddamnit joe, support the troops.

3/11/2008 2:33:55 PM

Quote :

"They financed the war the same way they finance deficit spending--borrowing from China."

Stupid fucking China. Who in their right mind lends money to America? The ignorant fuckstick they call their president just goes out and blows the whole thing on a useless failed war.

3/11/2008 3:06:39 PM

"they"

as if you were in another country or something.

fucking idiot.

3/11/2008 7:57:18 PM

Does this make imperialism a fair word to use again?

3/11/2008 8:53:43 PM

No, because the British actually made three trillion dollars when they occupied a country.

3/11/2008 8:55:46 PM

Who said it had to be successful?

3/11/2008 9:06:07 PM

^^^^

I'm Australian, not american.

He's your worthless retard of a president, and if your fellow seppos had any sense they'd end Bush's reign the way the Italians ended Moussolini's.

[Edited on March 11, 2008 at 9:11 PM. Reason : slow]

3/11/2008 9:09:34 PM

oooooooooooo he capitalized australian but not american

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRNNNN

3/11/2008 9:11:33 PM

So, you people do realize we're staying, right?

3/11/2008 9:16:11 PM

^^^

then go home to your penal colony if you hate it here so much.

3/11/2008 9:31:05 PM

THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR

3/11/2008 9:39:26 PM

Not that this is anything we didn't strongly suspect before the war, but now there is a Pentagon backed report on the issue:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/29959.html

Quote :

"WASHINGTON — An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network. The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime. The new study of the Iraqi regime's archives found no documents indicating a "direct operational link" between Hussein's Iraq and al Qaida before the invasion, according to a U.S. official familiar with the report."

3/13/2008 5:22:06 AM

If we occupied Iraq like an imperial power I argue that we'd actually be better off.

3/13/2008 9:51:20 AM

^bingo...

3/14/2008 1:15:00 AM

Quote :

"I honestly wouldn't give a fuck if sadaam was in power gassing them or throwing them in the torture chamber. Much like i do not give a fuck if some poor people starve to death in this country b.c they are to fucking lazy to get a job. "

Except that those two things are pretty damned dissimilar.


I think we fucked the dog with how we handled Iraq 5 years ago, but I don't think the answer at this point is to leave. That's a helluva bitter pill for a variety of reasons--trust me, I'm fully aware. There isn't an elegant solution from here. However, I think we've bought it, and I don't believe that leaving is the right thing to do now.

3/14/2008 1:36:03 AM

We're clinging to a pair of twos in a hand that never ends.

3/14/2008 2:08:56 AM