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The neo-cons have been sending this country into financial hell since Ronnie Raygun. Bush was just the clown left holding the bag. I will take some time to restore middle class growth but at least the direction has reveresd. It will be really noticable by 2010 and obvious by 2012.
Then we will see what the country really wants. I doubt if it will be a return to Republican fantasy.
Execllent summation. I guess we really needed to waste 3 trillion on an uneccesary war. A little late for 'I guess I mis-underestimated the Iraqis'.
Cost: From the start of the war through 2017, "You can't get any lower than $3 trillion."
And a gradual drawdown of troops isn't going to make it better, Bilmes says. Maintaining any presence at all in Iraq entails what economists call high fixed costs. Whether we've got 10,000 troops or 15,000 at a base, that base is still going to cost a lot to maintain. Hence, when the British withdrew half their forces from Basra, their costs fell by an almost imperceptible 3 percent.
Since $3 trillion is hard to digest, let's itemize some of the costs in Bilmes and Stiglitz's comprehensive figure.
Amount of money earned by a married U.S. Army sergeant with children per day in Iraq in 2007:$170
Amount of money earned by a Blackwater military contractor per day: $600
Number of U.S. military deaths as of Jan. 7, 2009:4,222
Average cost of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle:$3.166 million
Cost of the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad:$592 million
Execllent summation. I guess we really needed to waste 3 trillion on an uneccesary war. A little late for 'I guess I mis-underestimated the Iraqis'.
Cost: From the start of the war through 2017, "You can't get any lower than $3 trillion."
And a gradual drawdown of troops isn't going to make it better, Bilmes says. Maintaining any presence at all in Iraq entails what economists call high fixed costs. Whether we've got 10,000 troops or 15,000 at a base, that base is still going to cost a lot to maintain. Hence, when the British withdrew half their forces from Basra, their costs fell by an almost imperceptible 3 percent.
Since $3 trillion is hard to digest, let's itemize some of the costs in Bilmes and Stiglitz's comprehensive figure.
Amount of money earned by a married U.S. Army sergeant with children per day in Iraq in 2007:$170
Amount of money earned by a Blackwater military contractor per day: $600
Number of U.S. military deaths as of Jan. 7, 2009:4,222
Average cost of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle:$3.166 million
Cost of the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad:$592 million
Cost to conduct the war per month: $12 billion
Good excerpt and brings home the point that this whole mess isn't just about money. There were 4222 deaths as of January, 2009. How many loved ones are hurting over this? How many soldiers have committed suicide as a result of Bushco's war? Completely unnecessary. While I haven't been touched by this (as I imagine anyone in this thread has not been as well, or it would be preposterous to still support what Bush did), there are many out there not so lucky.
The neo-cons have been sending this country into financial hell since Ronnie Raygun. Bush was just the clown left holding the bag. It will take some time to restore middle class growth but at least the direction has reveresd. It will be really noticable by 2010 and obvious by 2012.
Then we will see what the country really wants. I doubt if it will be a return to Republican fantasy.
I can't see the GOP getting back into the driver's seat for a long time, perhaps a generation. Best thing America can do is go back to the days of overwhelming DEM majorities in the house and senate. That's the only thing that will stop their lies and crookedness.
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// In September 2002, White House economic adviser Larry Lindsey told the Wall Street Journal the war would cost between $100 billion and $200 billion. He was immediately excoriated by others in the administration. White House budget director Mitch Daniels called the estimate "very, very high." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called it "baloney."
The White House and Pentagon came back in January 2003 with a number that was more palatable - $50 billion to $60 billion. Rumsfeld's deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, boasted that Iraq would pay for its own reconstruction with increased oil revenues.
//
I don't see how you could be happy with the current state of affairs, unless you are a bank CEO or CEO of government funded companies like Haliburton.
I would say that you don't really know what is the worst thing going in this country, by the sound of your post. I couldn't vote since you had no choices for me to choose from. I am not liberal enough to vote with those.
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