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Alex213
Stranger
Registered: 08/22/05
Posts: 1,839
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Iraq war "more expensive than Vietnam"
#5566052 - 04/28/06 05:36 AM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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The Iraq war has already cost the United States $320bn (?180bn), according to an authoritative new report, and even if a troop withdrawal begins this year, the conflict is set to be more expensive in real terms than the Vietnam War, a generation ago.
The estimate, circulated this week by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), can only increase unease over the US presence in Iraq, whose direct costs now run at some $6bn a month, or $200m a day, with no end in sight.
The Bush administration has refused to provide any specific overall figure for the war's cost. But the Senate is set to approve another emergency spending bill in May, meaning that Iraq will have consumed $101bn in fiscal 2006 alone, almost double the $51bn of 2003, the year of the invasion itself - and all at a time when the federal budget deficit is running at near record levels.
But these figures pale beside what lies in store, the CRS says in its analysis. The Bush administration is desperate to announce a reduction in the 130,000-strong US force before November's mid-term elections, where public disillusion with the war threatens disaster for the Republicans.
However, even if everything goes relatively smoothly, costs until a phase-out is complete could top $370bn. This would make the Iraq conflict, now into its fourth year, more expensive financially than the Vietnam War, which lasted eight years. Vietnam claimed 58,000 American lives, far more than the almost 2,400 lost in Iraq thus far. But in today's dollars it cost "only" $549bn, much less than the $690bn for Iraq, and a projected combined $811bn bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It is a far cry from the weeks before the war, when a White House official was rapped on the knuckles for suggesting the cost might be between $100bn and $200bn, and Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, was touting "a number that's somewhere under $50bn".
Scott Wallsten of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank, has estimated an overall cost of $500bn thus far, with as much again possible. Most, he says, will be paid for by the US (unlike the 1990-91 Gulf War, which the US fought almost for free, thanks to contributions from Saudi Arabia, Japan and other allies).
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article360657.ece
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Rogues_Pierre
Stranger


Registered: 03/03/06
Posts: 99
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Re: Iraq war "more expensive than Vietnam" [Re: Alex213]
#5566082 - 04/28/06 06:42 AM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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What's the cost as a percentage of the GDP?
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twiggedoubt
twigburst


Registered: 10/10/01
Posts: 2,387
Last seen: 16 years, 8 months
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Re: Iraq war "more expensive than Vietnam" [Re: Rogues_Pierre]
#5566190 - 04/28/06 08:12 AM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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Don't forget the ratio of injured:killed in this war compared to vietnam. A lot of those people would have never survived if they were in nam. People seem to forget that a lot of those people might still be alive, but they are missing limbs, blind, deaf, brain damaged, and just about everything else you can think of, and many of them probally would have been better off if they would have died.
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barfightlard
tales of theinexpressible



Registered: 01/29/03 
Posts: 8,670
Loc: Canoodia
Last seen: 14 years, 1 month
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Re: Iraq war "more expensive than Vietnam" [Re: Rogues_Pierre]
#5566861 - 04/28/06 12:28 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
Rogues_Pierre said: What's the cost as a percentage of the GDP?
Might as well compares the nations debt of the times too.
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"What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, say, think, who I fuck, what I take into my body - as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet?" - Bill Hicks
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole

Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 81,741
Loc: Fractallife's gym
Last seen: 7 years, 7 months
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Re: Iraq war "more expensive than Vietnam" [Re: barfightlard]
#5567309 - 04/28/06 03:44 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
bellylard said:
Quote:
Rogues_Pierre said: What's the cost as a percentage of the GDP?
Might as well compares the nations debt of the times too.
Why? Is a dollar worth more if you owe it or if you don't?
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Slooch
Lead Apprentice


Registered: 03/07/06
Posts: 246
Last seen: 12 years, 1 month
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Re: Iraq war "more expensive than Vietnam" [Re: zappaisgod]
#5567879 - 04/28/06 06:31 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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Its now proven that this administration has gotten the US into the largest debt since Regain.
To top it all off this is the most debt of the previous presidents COMBINED!
I dont need to tell people but, this president and the state of the government now makes me scared to live here and I shit my pants every time there is something new that fucks the US even farther.
-------------------- Hey Just take some time and look at this pic here, below... Its a Smile Face ON THE CAP! WHAT ARE THE CHANCES? AND THE OTHER AN 8???!!!! IS this a SIGN?
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zappaisgod
horrid asshole

Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 81,741
Loc: Fractallife's gym
Last seen: 7 years, 7 months
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Re: Iraq war "more expensive than Vietnam" [Re: Slooch]
#5567896 - 04/28/06 06:33 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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May I recommend Clorox (lemon scent). Although it is harsh on fabric it will remove most stains fairly well.
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