[lorenzo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'U')S war costs 'could hit $811bn'

The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has soared and may now reach $811bn (£445bn), says a report by the Congressional Research Service.

It estimates that Congress has appropriated $368bn for the global war on terror, including both conflicts.

It says that if the current spending bill is approved, US war costs will reach $439bn, and it estimates that an extra $371bn may be needed by 2016.

[Ancien_Opus]

Only if you're willing to put a price on 3000 dead and 25,000 disabled service men and women.

[Dreamtwister]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ancien_Opus', 'O')nly if you're willing to put a price on 3000 dead and 25,000 disabled service men and women.

[MyOtherID]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ancien_Opus', 'O')nly if you're willing to put a price on 3000 dead and 25,000 disabled service men and women.

[jeezlouise]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lorenzo', '
')I think US$811 billion to control the world's second largest oil reserves and a very promising oil and gas region (Central Asia), is not too much. After all, at current prices, the 112 billion barrels of proved oil reserves in Iraq are definitely worth more.

War's a good investment, no doubt.

[skeptic]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lorenzo', '
')I think US$811 billion to control the world's second largest oil reserves and a very promising oil and gas region (Central Asia), is not too much. After all, at current prices, the 112 billion barrels of proved oil reserves in Iraq are definitely worth more.

War's a good investment, no doubt.

[mrobert]

In WAR, the easiest thing is to fight against an army.
You will eventually win against them, impose occupation and things would settle.
But fighting against a country and it's people, is a heck of a complex problem. While an army will capitulate ... the people in that country will always find an empty bottle, some gas and piece of cloth, and will blow something up.
And *this* is something against which is hard to win a war.
Read a good history book, and see how wars were lost or won.

The Iraq war is a good investment.
Ok. So you spent $800bn. Did this end it? Is there a guarantee you can now calmly pump oil for the next 10-20 years?
Or it will require "investing" $100bn every year into that war?

That would make it a sh*tty deal.

[ozkrenske]

800 000 000 000 is a fair pile of money.

Of course almost 20 billion would of been spent anyway on the wages of the soldiers and the maintenance of the equipment. Add in about 30 billion for sceduled replacement of equipment and the extra cost over and above normal operations would be around 750 billion.

What would that of bought. hmmmm.

A Hybrid runs around 20 000.
A Nuke plant runs to around a billion.
Total government science grants for the US (non mil) is running around 10 billion

So

750 000 000 000 would of bought 30 million hybrids and funded around 100 major nuclear powerplants and left another 30-50 billion for massively boosting alternative energy research across the USA. So the Government could of paid a 50% rebate on a simply massive chunk of the american car fleet to replace it with much more economic hybrids, and developed more power for the plug in abilities of these new cars and begun to build up a massive industry to move the US to more distributed eco friendly and cheaper in terms of oil use enrergy in the future. All in all the US would of gained and not destroyed anything. They also would of stolen a march on the rest of the world.

Instead you have effectively nothing to show for the expenditure.

Of course I know that the few Hybrid supplier would not of managed to build this many cars but offering a massive rebate for very high efficiency vehicles would certainly have skewed purchasing trends severely and could be maintained for a long time if you allocate 600 billion to it.

Of course that is also about what the US pharma industry is going to gain over a 5 year period from the new drug subsidy scheme for increased corporate profits.