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The Cost Of Conflict
What
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s your recommendation for policymakers in dealing with Iraq at this point?
We have to consider that we are spending $12 billion in up-front costs per month, plus all the downstream costs, like disability benefits. Over the course of two years, that could all add up to $500 million to $600 million. Will the situation be $600 billion better in two years? What else could we do with that money to improve the lives of Iraqis?
© 2008
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Member Comments
Posted By: joemash @ 03/03/2008 7:17:56 AM
Comment: Legalize Industrial Hemp! It's that easy. But we've been brainwashed. They will spend tens of millions of dollars to try and prevent people from using it. So now we'll all go to economic hell, but we'll all be 'straight'.
Posted By: oldwolf @ 03/01/2008 7:38:51 AM
Comment: I think the administration took a gamble that they could secure a large reserve of oil supply by invading Iraq. The ROI on this would've been staggering if it were successful. Unfortunately the investment (in invading Iraq) did not pan out. An alternative investment might've been to create a "Manhattan Project" to eliminate dependence on fossil fuels. The Bush administration, of course, would view this as a foolhardy, risky approach to solving the middle-east terrorism problem since here's no precedent for such a macro-economic technique. But let's just do a little thought experiment shall we: imagine post-9/11 the government (then running very low deficits and cash rich) said we will invest in new technologies to completely eliminate our dependence on oil. And then actually started putting real funds behind it ($200 billion say over 5 years). Today the price of oil futures would be so depressed that the middle east would be begging the US to help them rebuild their economies. Our education system would be pushing math and science hard to supply the nation with the brain power to solve the energy problem (anyone remember the space race). New industries would be emerging over night. We'd be leading the world again in a direction away from fighting over finite resources which is what Iraq was all about in the first place.
Posted By: AmericanPatriot @ 03/01/2008 7:24:51 AM
Comment: As a physicist, I still am ticked off that the Superconducting Supercollider project was cancelled back in 1993, because Congress thought its $12 billion price tag was too expensive. But now we're spending $12 billion every month for a war based on lies of Saddam's WMDs and role in the 9-11 attacks. America is truly one of the world's stupidest countries, I am tempted to renounce my citizenship and go live in Europe where my ancestors came from. As an added thought, look at the idiotic coke-head alcoholic we put in the White House for the past 8 years, and we stood by while democracy was subverted by "hanging chads" when instead we could have had Al Gore as President, whose work in the past 8 years have garnered him a Nobel Prize and an Oscar award. To hell with all you Americans and your gas-guzzling SUVs and TV-addled brains and Ritalin-brained kids with their Playstations and Wii's and your asinine obsession with Paris and Britney while the rest of the world focuses on real issues.