A trillion dollars will likely have been spent on the Iraq war by the time it is truly “over.” And, like Vietnam, for nothing. A trillion dollars to execute Saddam. A trillion dollars to create a hatred of our country that will live in the souls of Iraqis for generations to come. And while neocons here at home decry Obama’s fiscal policies and how he is burning through US debt like no other and how he must be insane for even considering a health care policy that costs any money, think of where that trillion, or any part of it, might have gone.
Robert McNamara, the architect of the US escalation in Vietnam, circa August 1964, is dead and the real tragedy is that the leaders at the Pentagon have learned absolutely nothing since then. Iraq. Another costly war, particularly in terms of the lives of brave servicemen and women, for nothing.
From the Huffington Post: Alec Baldwin: On Al Franken, Robert McNamara, and Running Against Joe Lieberman.
A trillion dollars. Not chump change, not by a long shot.
It’s about $3300 for every man, woman and child in the US. Let’s say that half of them are working (probably that’s too high a figure, there are lots of children, some seniors, some unemployed, but let’s just assume for the minute). That’s $6600 for every wage-earner in the country.
Let’s say everyone could afford to pay an extra $1000 a year in taxes. It would take 6.6 years to pay that off.
Do you know anyone who can afford an extra grand in taxes a year? Not hardly.
So let’s say it can be paid off at the rate of $500/year/wage-earner. Not likely, but let’s just say. Then it’s 13.2 years.
Think the average person can afford $333/year? Maybe. That’s 20 years. An entire generation.
Then there’s the human cost. Over 4500 American and allied servicemen & women dead. And estimates of 100,000 Iraqi civilian casualties. Again, for what?