I came across this political cartoon the other day by Corky Trinidad and it got me to thinking about what this country would be like if all the Iraq war money went to something else.
First, do you know how much money the United States is spending on the war? zFacts has an interesting chart that updates continuously and a few frightening facts. Here is an excerpt from an article at The Coloradoan “The Iraq War is costing more than $400,000 for each troop in the field. We are spending over $240,000 per minute for this war. The war costs each American household $138 per month. By 2017, the United States will have paid $1 trillion in interest on money borrowed to finance the war. This nation deserves better.”
Now, what can you do with $1 trillion dollars? Here are some suggestions from an article in The New York Times :
- Public health: treat every American whose diabetes or heart disease is unmanaged plus a global campaign to immunize millions of children.
- Education: Universal preschool for every three and four year-old child in the U.S.
- Rebuild New Orleans
- Real national security: we could put into place all those recommendations by the 9/11 Commission that haven’t been done
All of this could be done and we’d have some money left over! Or, how about this? Instead of a puny little “economic stimulus” check (my $300 should cover about 3 tanks of gas, if I’m lucky) the government could send every American enough money to REALLY stimulate the economy!
Economics Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Professor Linda Bilmes have published a book, “The Three Trillion Dollar War.” This book should be must reading for all of us because it details the true costs of the war in Iraq. The war is a legacy that will be with us for several generations as we deal with the debt the nation has incurred and the massive number of wounded veterans that will need continuous medical care.
As a nation we need to wake up and smell the coffee because someone has left the pot on the burner for too long. There is an election coming up in November. Let’s hope we can do some good then.
Posts
2 comments:
Just came across this article entitled "Investigators: Millions in Iraq contracts never finished" which states that "Millions of dollars of lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts were never finished because of excessive delays, poor performance or other factors, including failed projects that are being falsely described by the U.S. government as complete, federal investigators say."
What a mess!
When War with Iraq was first declared, I was horrified. I had foolishly hoped that our country had learned a painful lesson having gone through the Viet Nam War.
When people elected Bush to a second term, I was truly heartbroken. The loss of young lives devastates me.
Money aside, the dying must stop.
Post a Comment