War costs may total $2.4 trillion
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2007-10-23-wacosts_N.htm
By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON - The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could total
$2.4 trillion through the next decade, or nearly $8,000 per man, woman
and child in the country, according to a Congressional Budget Office
estimate scheduled for release Wednesday.
A previous CBO estimate put the wars' costs at more than $1.6
trillion. This one adds $705 billion in interest, taking into account
that the conflicts are being funded with borrowed money.
Assuming that Iraq accounts for about 80% of that total, the Iraq war
would cost $1.9 trillion, including $564 million in interest, said
Thomas Kahn, Spratt's staff director. The committee holds a hearing on
war costs this morning.
In the months before the March 2003 Iraq invasion, the Bush
administration estimated the Iraq war would cost no more than $50
billion.
[PS: Here's an alternative]
"Stand back and ask how this could have happened. Ask how a prosperous
country isolated by two oceans could have so embroiled itself in other
people's business that someone would want to do us harm. Even sitting
in the middle of Europe, Switzerland isn't beset by terrorist attacks,
because the Swiss mind their own business."
--Harry Browne, former Libertarian candidate for president
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