As one who came of age during the Vietnam War years, I am amazed at the lack of protest over George W. Bush’s handling of the Iraq War. Not only has the war now claimed the lives of 4,000 U.S. service men and women, it has killed 90,000 Iraqi civilians.
New estimates put the overall cost of the war at $3 trillion, a quantum leap from the Bush Administration’s original estimate of $50 billion. This is big, big money and is major reason for this country’s current economic woes since the war has grossly inflated the budget deficit and help triple the price of oil. The subprime mess, bursting of the real estate bubble and Wild West financing have been other major causes of the current woes. But the war does far more to negatively impact the U.S. economy that merely land use, which is a popular item, if overrated, of discussion on this blog.
Even more shameful is that the Weapons of Mass Destruction used as an excuse for the war didn’t exist. And, the neocons’ dream of creating a viable model of American-style democracy for the rest of the Middle East has become a bad joke. (See column in Bacons Rebellion).
Peter Galuszka