There is no such thing as a free lunch, and there is no such thing as a free war. The Iraq adventure has seriously weakened the U.S. economy, whose woes now go far beyond loose mortgage lending. You can't spend $3 trillion -- yes, $3 trillion -- on a failed war abroad and not feel the pain at home...[more]
Iraq War costs $3 Trillion; Weakening our economy
By Chris - Posted on March 8th, 2008
how about those pallets with billions of dollars Bush and his administration sent to Iraq and lost!
How US lost billions in Wild West gamble to rebuild Iraq : AN AUDIT of US reconstruction spending in Iraq has uncovered spectacular misuse of tens of millions of dollars in cash, including bundles of money stashed in filing cabinets, a US soldier who gambled away thousands and stacks of newly minted notes distributed without receipts.
There's more here:
How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish
and here: $5.5 Billion (In Cash) Flown From DC To Iraq & Promptly Lost.
and here: Billions of dollars have disappeared, gone to bribe Iraqis and line contractors’ pockets.
and here: Where has all the money gone?
Yeah, blame the economy, George.
Wars are costly.
Unconventional Wars are even more costly.
Brian's link on the bribes rings very true. Many times in order to get things done our forces have had to pay money to those who were supporting the ones we were fighting. This is the backbone of "The Awakening" which has taken place in areas like Al Anbar.
Iraq is a sinkhole for our money and will be for a few more years yet. However if we were to pull all of our forces out prematurely the chaos that would ensue would cost even more in terms of our world markets specifically the oil market.
Today I read about Basra and how they're having problems with security. If you recall this was a quiet area while the insurgency ran rampant throughout the rest of the country. The British forces pulled out this past fall. The Iraqis Police in that area have had too many problems with corruption that now they're facing an unhappy populace as well. This should be used as a learning tool for US areas to make sure the Iraqis forces can stand on their own before they pull out.
BTW~ Basra is home to a large portion of the countries operating oil fields.
MikeyA
am I wrong when I heard that the Government "lost" several pallets of money totalling six hundred million dollars somewhere in Iraq?
Nope. You're right. As you'll see below in my example it's very easy to see how.
In wars like these you need to take every advantage of any commodities you have. Americans have always had one commodity over everyone else, money.
I have been studying the battle of Fallujah. When the Marines entered in April '04 they took a soda bottling company as headquarters. Let me quote then Lt Col Byrne as to how the US tried to keep some good will with the owner while commandeering the buildings.
"I'm going to give him rent, make repairs, buy a lot of his soda, and pay his employees for all the days they missed work because of us." (from Imperial Grunts by Robert Kaplan)
That's on top of the costs for the actual military operation of moving several elements of the task force into the city. So it's easy to see how the costs rise so fast.
As for corruption. Many of these areas were corrupt during Hussein's regime. Al Fallujah itself was a very corrupt city which required bribes and pay offs regularly. That's why it was a Baath party stronghold. They became Baathists because it's where the money was.
There are many different facets to this war and it's very interesting none-the-less. What I've found fascinating is it's our most low tech and elementary tactics which have had the best results and not the high tech gee whiz gadgetry.
MikeyA
The real question is why are we there and should we be there? I say, no! Pull the plug! This entire war is bullshit.
a high school student and sadly I think I might have more common sence than George Bush. LOL
Well that was certainly a helpful and pertinent comment, wasn't it?
When I was a high school student I remember Bill Clinton's election campaign bumper sticker which read "Saddam Hussein still has his job. Do you?"
I try to remember that when dealing with the politics of war.
MikeyA
Well, sure, we supported him and did not want to condemn his use of chemical weapons at a time when when we were, like now, are still trying to influence the area by supporting regimes that do not offer human rights and dignity, all benchmarks of the U.S.
"Washington, D.C., 25 February 2003 - The National
Security Archive at George Washington University today published
on the Web a series of declassified U.S. documents detailing
the U.S. embrace of Saddam Hussein in the early 1980's,
including the renewal of diplomatic relations that had been
suspended since 1967. The documents show that during this
period of renewed U.S. support for Saddam, he had invaded
his neighbor (Iran), had long-range nuclear aspirations
that would "probably" include "an eventual
nuclear weapon capability," harbored known terrorists
in Baghdad, abused the human rights of his citizens, and
possessed and used chemical weapons on Iranians and his
own people. The U.S. response was to renew ties, to provide
intelligence and aid to ensure Iraq would not be defeated
by Iran, and to send a high-level presidential envoy named
Donald Rumsfeld to shake hands with Saddam (20 December
1983)."
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/press.htm
I was just pointing out how politics can cloud military issues.
Many on the far left would deny they ever supported removal of Hussein. The bumper sticker is a direct counter to that.
Personally I wish both sides would keep politics out of military decisions. It costs American lives and money. Politicians should make only broad decisions about strategy and leave the operational and tactical levels to the experts on the ground. Too many times I hear fellow servicemembers and veterans say "We did our job but then Washington got in the way."
That's why in studying Al-Fallujah I get so frustrated. That's probably the biggest time where politics interfered in the management of the war and it caused a Khe Sahn like situation. Again.
MikeyA
The Mother of All Corruptions:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16076312/the_great_iraq_swind...