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Title: The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict
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Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
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| The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict by W. W. Norton Useful estimates of the full costs of the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan |
Joseph Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001, and Linda Bilmes, a lecturer at Harvard, have produced an estimate of the real cost of the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan.
In Iraq, 4,000 US troops have been killed, 58,000 wounded, and 100,000 have returned home with serious mental disorders. Stiglitz and Bilmes estimate that the USA's total lifetime medical, disability and social security costs for the two wars will be $717 billion through to 2017.
They estimate that the war against Iraq will cost the USA a total of $2.65 trillion through to 2017. The war on Afghanistan will cost another $850 billion through to 2017. The total is $3.5 trillion. (Bush misunderestimated it would be $50 billion, wrong by a factor of seventy.) This works out at $25,000 for every US household.
The costs of the two wars to the rest of the world are another $3 trillion, largely because the invasion has driven up oil prices from $25 a barrel to $120. This has cost the world $800 billion so far, and will have cost an estimated $1.6 trillion by 2015. It has cost us in Britain £24 billion so far, and will have cost an estimated £50 billion by 2015.
The wars' direct military costs to us in Britain so far are £8.7 billion; the estimated future costs till 2015 are another £7 billion. Veterans' disability and medical costs are £2.3 billion. The social costs of deaths and disabilities are another £2 billion. The total is £20 billion, £800 per household.
The First World War cost the USA $577 billion, the war on Korea $295 billion, the war on Vietnam $670 billion and the Gulf War $94 billion. The total cost of these four wars was $1.64 trillion, which is just half the cost of the two current wars.
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| The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict by W. W. Norton HAL doesn't share/holders |
| Very provoking. Though I just want to correct page 15 where Stiflitz/Blimes says sole source contracting makes "Excess profits for defense contractors and oil companies. . . . Halliburton's stock price has increased 229 percent since the war began." THIS IS NOT TRUE. HAL has gone back and forth from 35 to 45 since the war began. THESE CONTRACTORS NEVER SHARE THEIR ILLICIT GAINS WITH THEIR SHAREHOLDERS. THAT GOES FOR OIL COMPANIES TOO. They keep all their ill-gotten gains for themselves. They are selfish greedy crooks! The book is otherwise spot on. |
| The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict by W. W. Norton More than the Administration wants you to know |
We all know that entry into the Iraq war was based on false notions about non-existent weapons of mass destruction. What is less likely, is whether we remember what we were told it would cost: Less than $50 billion - will take only area weeks - six months at the outside. A secretary of the treasury even lost his job because he said it might cost $200 billion. Oh if it were only true!
This text documents the true cost. Aside from the direct expenses of $700 billion, and more than 4000 American live, wemust account for the tens of thousands wounded- their care and lost productivity.
This text is filled with statistics. The argument is persuasive - even overwhelming in its detail. The text does not stray far fromeconomics to make tie argument, nor does it need to. The facts speak clearly and loudly. |
| The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict by W. W. Norton The Three Trillion Dollar Failure |
The good news is we can afford the Iraq War. Unfortunately, that's the only good news in this book. We were hoodwinked on the cost, the reasons for going to war and who was going to pay for it.
The authors estimates of costs are meticulous, well supported and extremely unsettling. They point out no serious economist still thinks wars are good for the economy and the facts point to this war being even less so because it's being fought on a credit card. The authors even get into the taxpayer fleecing condoned by the administrations active support of no bid contracts extended to a favored few.
A sobering read. |
| The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict by W. W. Norton Three Trillion Dollar |
| The book is informative, but is very repeatitous. It is not grabbing like a thriller novel but does put in perspective the true cost of the war |
| The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict by W. W. Norton Product Description |
The true cost of the Iraq War is $3 trillion—and counting—rather than the $50 billion projected by the White House.
Apart from its tragic human toll, the Iraq War will be staggeringly expensive in financial terms. This sobering study by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard professor Linda J. Bilmes casts a spotlight on expense items that have been hidden from the U.S. taxpayer, including not only big-ticket items like replacing military equipment (being used up at six times the peacetime rate) but also the cost of caring for thousands of wounded veterans—for the rest of their lives. Shifting to a global focus, the authors investigate the cost in lives and economic damage within Iraq and the region. Finally, with the chilling precision of an actuary, the authors measure what the U.S. taxpayer's money would have produced if instead it had been invested in the further growth of the U.S. economy. Written in language as simple as the details are disturbing, this book will forever change the way we think about the war. |
