War Costs

From the Stars and Stripes:
"Study: Iraq war cost 190,000 lives, $2.2 trillion"

The US-led war in Iraq claimed 190,000 lives and will cost the US government at least 2.2 trillion dollars, according to the findings of a project at Brown University released Thursday. The Costs of War report, released ahead of the 10th anniversary of the war on March 20, said that the financial calculation included "substantial" costs to care for wounded US veterans.  A small number of the 190,000 dead were US casualties: 4,488 US military members and at least 3,400 US contractors, according to the report. The US government has spent 60 billion dollars on reconstruction, but little has gone to restoring destroyed infrastructure. Most of the money has gone to the Iraqi military and police, the report noted. The US State Department conceded that both countries made "enormous sacrifices." Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, responding to the Costs of War report, said that the United States and Iraq have forged a "strategically important bilateral relationship." "Compared to where we were in the Saddam era, we now have a bilateral security agreement. We have deep economic interests and ties. We have a security relationship. We have a political relationship," she said. The Costs of War project involved 30 economists, anthropologists, lawyers, humanitarian personnel and political scientists from 15 universities, the United Nations and other organizations.

^ War is hell and the cost of war is just as bad. Wars are started by politicians and those wounded and killed are the soldiers and civillians. Whether you agreed with the war or not is besides the point. The point is that thousands upon thousands of people were killed, Saddam is dead and now the US needs to step-up its support for the soldiers wounded. ^

 

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/study-iraq-war-cost-190-000-lives-2-2-trillion-1.211856