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COST OF WAR

Iraq War Cost $2.2 Trillion and 190,000 Lives

Cost could eventually top $6 trillion. Was it worth it?

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t +

Image: Business Insider

Tuesday is the 10-year anniversary of the Iraq war, a military exercise that cost 190,000 American and Iraqi lives and hit US taxpayers with a $2.2 trillion bill, according to a new study from Brown University. Interest could amount to $3.9 trillion through 2053, bringing the cost of war to almost $6 trillion.

In 2002, before the invasion, the US Office of Management and Budget predicted the war would costs less than one thirtieth of that - only $60 billion. In fact reconstruction in Iraq cost $60 billion alone, with billions of that being wasted or stolen by contractors.

The $2.2 trillion figure also includes care for veterans, and could rise to $3.9 trillion by 2053, according to Brown.

Of the 190,000 dead, around 134,000 were Iraqi civilians.

Was it worth it? The war's supporters would point out that Saddam Hussein was deposed and America now has diplomatic and economic relations with Iraq. On the negative side, Iraq is still unstable, and fully democratic elections are an unrealized dream. The country continues to suffer severe shortages and a medical crisis caused by the fact that half the country's doctors left during the 2000s, Reuters reports.

Via Brown.edu. H/T PNWest.
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In your opinion was the Iraq war worth it?

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193 Comments (view in Forum)

  • Sonny
    !
    Now you all know where a Giant portion of Pres. Obama's debt is coming from---Yet you all continue to blame Obama for this travesty....And once again...I don't recall all of this Righteous Indignation---When Bush was Running up war tab...Or when the lives of American Soldiers was starting to pile up......Why is it that the right NEVER wants to take any responsibility for their own bad policies...And yet want the American people to vote them in ---to just do more of the same?!?!?
  • Realthinker
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    Sonny, those financial figures are *estimates*. They include what the pollsters think the government will have to spend on veterans over the next fifteen years. It's nothing but a guess on their part. Is that what you call factual?
  • Yank
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    Stop your BS. Those costs are a 40 year estimates, and only makes up a small portion of his current spending.

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  • Neo_NtheMatrix
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    @armed_liberal - I question yours. The purpose of trying to put a $6T price tag on Iraq is to make it seem as if that is the reason we are drowning in debt, instead of all the outrageous spending obama is doing. You knew that though. Liberals never admit that government is too big, no matter how big government gets.
  • armed_liberal
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    @Neo_NtheMatrix
    Where was all of this balance the budget rhetoric when Bush was throwing away money like MC Hammer at a Cadillac dealership?

    Oh yeah, max the credit cards, destroy the economy and then blame it all on the black guy that showed up the next day.

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  • AntiPorcheria
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    @Sonny - Lots of misunderstanding and differences of opinions for both sides.

    Clinton should never have lobbed bombs claiming there were WMD's until he had prima facie evidence.

    The word of British Intelligence through Tony Blair was enacted upon by Clinton and Bush.

    9/11 happened...EVERYBODY was gung ho to go to war.

    EVERYBODY named Saddam and wanted to go to Iraq and "get him" and WE AS A GROUP during the Bush administration went to war.

    Bush is at fault for relying on Cheney as adviser.

    Obama is at fault for not keeping his campaign promises to withdraw two brigades per month, with all US combat troops out by 2009.

    We still have soldiers in Iraq.

    In the end, both men, their advisers and our house and senate have thoroughly botched this war.
  • Sonny
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    The only other option that I would have added to this poll is....Do you think its time to END all military Activity in both Iraq & Afghanistan....Including any aid, supportive troops??
  • marine1
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    What were the benifits of this war? How can anyone correlate the worth or a value on the lives and money expended? Why is it our charge in life to change the lives of other nations? I think not!
  • marine1
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    @PNWest I don't like waste,I don't like abuse and I won't stand for intimidation from either side. My comments are for the "most part" based on personal life experiences and would suggest that if our legisiators would apply th same type of values, we would all be a lot better off.
  • Denizen_Kate
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    @marine1 - Nothing that came out of the war in Iraq was worth the smallest pinkie on any of our young soldiers, IMO. The whole thing was shameful as well as wasteful. I honor the memory of those we lost and wish we'd never sent them over there.
  • GuyFawkes
    !
    Saddam was deposed.
    Saddam was helped into power by the US as a balance against Iran. There are many photos showing Saddam shaking hands with Rumsfeld and Bush, Sr. in better days.
    Saddam was an absolute ruler which has its drawbacks, yes. But he was also a stabilizing force in the region. There was zero Al Qaeda under Saddam. He was a powerful US ally with OPEC.
    He over reached with Kuwait and was surprised by the US response. He did not anticipate his former friends to come to the aid of Kuwait, which Saddam believed was Iraqi territory.
    Then after 9/11 we wrongly invaded Iraq, using the false WMD premise as an excuse for war.
    Bush wanted retribution and Western allies wanted cheap oil- Iraq being the largest oil reserve on Earth at the time, larger than Saudi Arabia.
    It did not work out as planned.
    Saddam is now history, the region is fragmented with no peace between Sunni and Shiite, Al Qaeda moves freely through the region, Iran remains unchecked and aggressive, the war has cost thousands of lives and $Trillions (with a T) and oil is twice as expensive as it was prior to invasion.
    Not to mention the loss of trust the region has for America.
  • fayban
    !
    Time will tell if the Iraq people can come together and build for them selfs a free nation. Saddam and his sons suppressed the population. The counrty's people are free now to decide thier own future. Yes the counrty has many problems. They just faught a 10 year war. Change will not come over night. Change will not be easy. I choose to believe all people deserve the opportunity to live free.
  • GuyFawkes
    !
    Many Obama supporters blame the Bush administration for the current deficit, citing the Iraq war.
    It should be noted that Mr. Obama in now into his 2nd term, the Bush expenditures have long been absorbed and the debt has more than doubled under Mr. Obama. We can no longer blame Mr. Bush.
    This rests squarely on Obama's shoulders. He has chosen to increase spending while telling the public he is for reduction. Gas was $2 gallon when he took office and the Middle East was beginning to stabilize. Ahmadinejad was under the thumb of Israel, a strong US ally.
    We have discussed elsewhere the missteps in foreign policy by the current administration that brings us to our current state.
  • Thomas_Paine
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    @GuyFawkes - you apparently just invent facts whenever the need arises. What do you mean the Iraq War costs have been absorbed? The costs are actually continuing to mount and NO funds were ever allocated to pay for the war to begin with.
  • GuyFawkes
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    @Thomas_Paine
    I invent facts?
    Perhaps you should study geopolitics and look into the GAO prior to 'spouting off.'
    Thomas Paine would think that to be
    'Common Sense.'
    Costs from over half a decade ago have been long accounted for and absorbed.

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  • PNWest
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    Thank you Dr. Mary for posting this. Where were all of the conservatives when GW Bush got us into this mess? Did any of them say a single word about the taxpayer money being wasted on a war that was fought based upon lies ginned up by the neo cons? This war, the war in Afghanistan, the big tax cuts that went primarily to the rich and the big medicare give-a-way to big pharma are the biggest reasons for the current deficit. Stimulus spending under Obama was and is necessary to get the economy back on track after Bush and the GOP nearly ruined it. Amazing how conservatives don't care one bit about the deficit until a democratic president is in office.$2.2 Trillion and 190,000 lives wasted. All based on lies.
  • mwr
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    SAA has not even gotten a thank you note from them. And the anti american leade of Afghanistan is also a waste of us money, lives, and support. Time to get home and take care of our own problems and let the world work out thier own issues.
  • RoFroh
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    Saddam needed to go!!!! He wasn't going without military intervention, the US probably would have been involved in a military engagement with the Iraqi government since then as his government would have attacked his own people or a neighboring country. As far as it still being a unstable country anyone thinking that deposing Saddam would result in immediate rainbows and unicorns was fooling themselves, as I'd anyone saying they were better off with him still in power.

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  • Ryuo
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    We were going to end up in a major war in the Middle East one way or the other, so it was good that it was one of our choosing. The first years of the war went well, on balance - we solidified an ally in Kurdistan, and killed or scared a lot of evil regimes. We did not follow up, though, so the last trillion does not have much to show for it.
  • Denizen_Kate
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    We were already IN a "major war in the Middle East" in Afghanistan. And why is it good that we chose to go to war with Iraq? Iraq was not threatening us. If Saddam had had WMDs, he would have used them when we invaded his country. He may have been a very bad man, a totalitarian dictator, but there was stability in the largest oil producing country in the world under his regime. As for Kurdistan, where in the value in having them as an ally? What do they bring to the table? If you think the first years of the Iraq war went well, you haven't been talking to the families of those who never made it home.
  • KyleMFb
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    The Iraq war was an illegal and a for profit war that nearly "bankrupted" the US while making Dick,Bush,Rumsfeld and so many others filthy rich
  • miketost
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    Great mentality.Pay for free student loans.Forget the lives saved from the brutal government that killed its own people.Your leftist opinion does not surprise me in the least.Yes their was collateral damage and death but many today have hope for a better future.It would appear your concern is more for what we can get for free not helping humanity.
  • DARSB
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    @miketost "It would appear your concern is more for what we can get for free not helping humanity." College students aren't humanity? ;)

    Anyway, you draw quite a range of conclusions from a simple comparison. Rather than tell me how I think why don't you ask? I'm not shy, I'll tell you.
  • ErnestPayne
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    The estimates are probably very conservative. The good news is that the fiscal cost of the wars has bankrupted america's ability to recover from the Bush recession and economic fiasco (don't email me about President Obama's spending - that was necessary to stimulate me out of the bush disaster - FDR did it as well and it worked). The wars made a lie out of the Pentagon's claim that it could fight and win one large and one small war simultaneously. It also showed every country how to defeat america. Way to go republicans.
  • jerder
    !
    I remember the night that President George W Bush began his "shock and awe" bombing campaign in Iraq. I was driving my then 17 year old daughter home from work and she made that remark about how frightened the Iraqi children and their families must be. OUR MILITARY literally destroyed most of the infrastructure in Iraq; anchient mosques filled with equally anchient artifacts, artwork, and books, electrical transformers and lines, water treatment facilities, interuppted the water flow to homes across the country, destroyed gas stations and oil refineries, turned some cities into rubble, etc. Ordinary Iraqi citizens did not have enough to eat, very minimal and sporadic electricity, contaminated water to drink, and no fuel to heat homes or gas to put into their vehicles. And it still took many many many weeks to find Sadaam Hussein. Out of the rubble caused by President George W Bush's non stop bombing for several days, arose a new enemy; Iraqi rebels who were mostly young men from families who lost their homes, etc. during the bombing and left destitute. Men and young teens who HAD SUPPORTED the U.S. decision to invade. For months, Iraqi children were being maimed or killed by unexploded cluster bombs, which are large bombs with a lot of tiny clusters of bombs attached that fly everywhere after the major bomb explodes. Not only did the war in Iraq cost hundreds of American lives as our troops were hit with roadside bombs, snipers, etc. and billions of dollars just for military equipment, weapons, and aircraft, it cost us tens of billions of dollars to restore electricity and running water to 85% of Iraq that WE DESTROYED in the shock and awe campaign. Then there were the other costs. The loss of pallets of money we sent to private contractors for the rebuilding that were never recovered, the construction of the concrete fortress known as the Green Zone to house our diplomats, generals, etc. Our men and women serving in the military paid with their lives for the mess President George W Bush started with that first heavy bombing of the entire country in the dead of night that did not even result in the capture and death of Sadaam Hussein for quite a long time.
  • gregtoye
    !
    What did we accomplish oil fields and poppi fields yea we killed Saddam but really this war was said to be about weapons of mass destruction and when we found non then it went to there funding terrorists and they found no evidence of that so then it went to operation Iraqi freedom more like operation crusade and spend money I'm just sayin how is it that Afghanistan actually had terrorists and we never.seen anything on that we always got Iraq hmm sounds like Rick Cheney wanted to get rich and Bush Jr had a.score to settle makes.me.belive that we had advanced warning about.9/11 God bless.are troops and the army infantry hoolah brothers hoolah
  • Thegrif
    !
    After Bush announces that we are going to war, post 911, his approval rating soared up from the 74% he had, to a 90% approval rating, the American people were all for kickin some ass. I'm sorry if America never realized a war would cost money and people would die, thats war. I am sorry that people never realized that when you take on an enemy such as terrorism, an
    Enemy that has no home, that is all over the world, that has cells right here in the USA, an enemy that hates you just because you are American, that thinks the poorest person in America is a spoiled rich person, I am sorry that once entered this war will never end. Terrorist will never stop, terror will never end, no matter what Obama says, "I ended terrorism", terrorism looked alive in Benghazi. War doesn't end just because a President says it does. With terrorism and terrorist there is no land to occupy, no flag to take, no leader to capture that makes that enemy unable to continue. This war is forever, to the end.
    Unless you give in, compromise your believes, your way of life, and your freedoms.
    Unless you turn your back on America, the flag, the cause, and turn your back on all the men and women who died defending those things.
  • Libertyiskey
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    We are giving up our freedoms. Patriot Act, NDAA, trillion dollar deficits, 16 trillion dollar debt, continued expanding government all in the name of fighting terrorism.
  • Knightkore
    !
    Very true.....and the interesting thing.....the easy way to defund them.....to become energy independent.....is not happening.....{not to mention when we GIVE the terrorists and those who support them jets, tanks and training.....I'm talking about Egypt here specifically how can we win.....}
  • Knightkore
    !
    @Libertyiskey That's because we're fighting the war on terrorism on THEIR terms and in fear, not on our terms and in confidence.....it is as much psychological as it is physical, perhaps more so.....we'll have to change that or lose as many other societies have against the religious onslaught of Islam and its destructive effects.....
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