The Pentagon has in the last days reported that it estimates the cost of the Iraq War to the US will reach US$8.4 billion dollars per month. Yes, you read that correctly! US$8.4 billion per month.
The entire cost, in monetary terms, of the Iraq War is fully detailed in this examination and analysis by the NY Times - and how the money spent might have been much better directed to something truly worthwhile. Bottom line, the money-sums involved in the Iraq War are truly staggering and hard to come to grips with. And bear in mind this is all basically the cost of the military operation. It does not take into account the cost to Iraq, its infrastructure [what's left of it!] and its people. Also not included in the figures is what the War has cost UK and Australian taxpayers.
"The human mind isn't very well equipped to make sense of a figure like $1.2 trillion.
We don't deal with a trillion of anything in our daily lives, and so when we come across such a big number, it is hard to distinguish it from any other big number. Millions, billions, a trillion — they all start to sound the same.
The way to come to grips with $1.2 trillion is to forget about the number itself and think instead about what you could buy with the money. When you do that, a trillion stops sounding anything like millions or billions.
For starters, $1.2 trillion would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign — a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children's lives.
Combined, those programs wouldn't use up even half of our money pot. So we could then turn to poverty and education, starting with universal preschool for every three- and four-year-old child across the country. The city of New Orleans could also receive a huge increase in reconstruction funds."
The entire cost, in monetary terms, of the Iraq War is fully detailed in this examination and analysis by the NY Times - and how the money spent might have been much better directed to something truly worthwhile. Bottom line, the money-sums involved in the Iraq War are truly staggering and hard to come to grips with. And bear in mind this is all basically the cost of the military operation. It does not take into account the cost to Iraq, its infrastructure [what's left of it!] and its people. Also not included in the figures is what the War has cost UK and Australian taxpayers.
"The human mind isn't very well equipped to make sense of a figure like $1.2 trillion.
We don't deal with a trillion of anything in our daily lives, and so when we come across such a big number, it is hard to distinguish it from any other big number. Millions, billions, a trillion — they all start to sound the same.
The way to come to grips with $1.2 trillion is to forget about the number itself and think instead about what you could buy with the money. When you do that, a trillion stops sounding anything like millions or billions.
For starters, $1.2 trillion would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign — a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children's lives.
Combined, those programs wouldn't use up even half of our money pot. So we could then turn to poverty and education, starting with universal preschool for every three- and four-year-old child across the country. The city of New Orleans could also receive a huge increase in reconstruction funds."
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