Cost of Iraq war could top $2 trillion: study

That's Trillion. With a T. Remember when a some guys in the White House said this war wouldn't effect Americans in the pocketbook? How it would only be a few hundred million, maybe a couple hundred billion, tops? How Iraqi oil would pay for it all? Add that to the list of fibs. The grandkids of our children will still be paying for this long after we're gone. I now see what people have been screaming about over the last couple years, in regards to our leaders and their cronies deliberately looting the treasury. All these warmongers rake in the cash the longer these current "wars" go (and any new ones that they're trying to get started). We, as Americans, won't see any of it though. Especially not in the form of tax breaks or gas prices. Yet many people claiming to be "real Americans" will sit there waving an American flag (probably made in China), thinking this is a good thing for the country. Yeah, isn't it great. We're being gouged financially, being forced to accept all these new laws that screw with our privacy, losing jobs at record numbers, to name a few, but hey it's ok that all these warmongers are cashing in with record stock prices. With record fuel prices. Cost of living going up. Lets sit here and wave our flag and think we're part of the system, while we fall into debt and lose our home. It's those dirty ayrabs. It's all their fault. They hate us for our (dwindling) freedom.

Cost of Iraq war could top $2 trillion: study
By Jason Szep (Reuters)

The cost of the Iraq war could top $2 trillion, far above the White House's pre-war projections, when long-term costs such as lifetime health care for thousands of wounded U.S. soldiers are included, a study said on Monday.

Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes included in their study disability payments for the 16,000 wounded U.S. soldiers, about 20 percent of whom suffer serious brain or spinal injuries.

They said U.S. taxpayers will be burdened with costs that linger long after U.S. troops withdraw.

"Even taking a conservative approach, we have been surprised at how large they are," said the study, referring to total war costs. "We can state, with some degree of confidence, that they exceed a trillion dollars."

Before the invasion, then-White House budget director Mitch Daniels predicted Iraq would be "an affordable endeavor" and rejected an estimate by then-White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey of total Iraq war costs at $100 billion to $200 billion as "very, very high."

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