The estimated cost of a war in Iraq has been estimated by the Bush administration at: $75,000,000,000.00 But what does this figure really mean? Someone investigated what $75 Billion could buy in 2003. Here is a short list: (1) Free health care for 50,000,000 people in the developed nations (based on current per-capita expenditures in Canada) (2) Adequate basic health care for 5,122,950,820 people in developing nations. (based on estimates by Dr Lieve Fransen in 1997 and with 2% inflation incorporated) (3) All undergraduate expenses (tuition and living) in America for: - 2,709,831 private university students (4,104,416 tuition only) - 5,840,667 4-year public university students (18,377,849 tuition only) - 7,171,543 community college students (43,227,666 tuition only) source: http://www.collegejournal.com/aidadmissions/financialissues/20021028-kronholz.html (4) 375,000,000 "Simputers" (cost-effective computers for developing nations) source: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010509S0044 (5) At least a 17% rise in income for each of the 1.2 billion people estimated to be living on less than one dollar a day. (6) Habitat for Humanity homes for: 1,875,000 families in America 2,939,332 families in Hungary 3,018,959 families in Romania 29,469,548 families in the Democratic Republic of Congo 30,788,177 families in Sri Lanka 32,552,083 families in Papua New Guinea 35,714,286 families in Guatamala 41,829,336 families in India source: http://www.habitat.org/how/whatlikeintl.html (7) 112,570,356,500 cans of Budweiser beer (8) 441,176,470,600 handgun bullets ($0.17/each) (9) 75,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles (10) 37 B-2 Sprit stealth bombers (plus change for 22 F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighters and 10 Joe Millionaires) (11) 46,875,000,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline (Ohio, March 2003, USA) (12) 2,616,887,648 barrels of crude oil (March 24, 2003) (13) Hiring 688,206 top-notch U.N. weapons inspectors for a year. source: http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/salaries_allowances/salary.htm *For curiosity sake* (Taken directly from the Energy Information Administration wing of the United States Department of Energy: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/iraq.html) "Iraq contains 112 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the second largest in the world (behind Saudi Arabia). Iraq's true resource potential may be far greater than this, however, as the country is largely (90% or so) unexplored due to years of war and sanctions. Deep oil-bearing formations located mainly in the vast Western Desert region, for instance, could yield large additional oil resources (possibly another 100 billion barrels), but have not been explored. Iraq's oil production costs are amongst the lowest in the world, making it a highly attractive oil prospect. However, only 15 of 73 discovered fields have been developed, while few deep wells have been drilled compared to Iraq's neighbors. Overall, only about 2,000 wells reportedly have been drilled in Iraq (of which about 1,500-1,700 are actually producing oil), compared to around 1 million wells in Texas for instance. In addition, Iraq generally has not had access to the latest, state-of-the-art oil industry technology (i.e., 3D seismic), sufficient spare parts, and investment in general throughout most of the 1990s, but has instead reportedly been utilizing questionable engineering techniques (i.e., overpumping, water injection/flooding) and old technology to maintain production." Oil return on war investment = from 4280 to 8101% Shares in Dick Cheney's "former" company Halliburton Co. rose from a 52-week low of $8.97on July 23, 2002 to a 52-week high of $21.65 on December 18, 2002. Of course, Bush's appearance before the U.N. requesting military action in Iraq occurred between the two extremes. Halliburton is expected to profit nicely from the Iraqi war (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14472-2003Mar23.html). Go, check the news and see what logo is presiding over the trucks and equipment already deployed in the region to put out the oilfield fires. http://www.nyse.com/cgi-bin/ny_news?df=NY&r=S&sym=HAL&sl=PR-03/24-19:22-1879|ON-03/23-21:23-531|ON-03/21-18:19-625|ON-03/21-15:55-521|ON-03/18-13:24-954|&sp=0 Not only should Halliburton know how to put out the fires, but they should easily be able to repair the oil infrastructure (again). Equipment used by the Iraqis to repair installations damaged in the first Gulf War seems to have been supplied by Halliburton, though Europe (namely France, Italy, Germany, and Austria) http://www.sfbg.com/reality/04.html, http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/6/24/80648.shtml, and Washington Post, June 23, 2001; Page A1 Section: A) --- post/info found on another forum.
Geez, we should have invaded Iraq a long time ago... How about this: After we overthrow Saddam's regime, we let the Iraqi people elect whomever they want to run the country while we tap all that oil and work out a plan to share it with them. It's probably not that simple, but something to think about. ...and if those Euros want any of the oil, we sell it to them at a 500% markup! BWAHAHAHA!!!
Because money is supposed to actually represent something. You don't just print cash without something to back it up. It lowers the worth of the dollar, meaning that you'd need more than $75 bill. Mexico tried this by the way, that's why you use to hear stories of people taking bags of cash to go grocery shopping.
Inlfation--> missallocation of investments---> a temporary boom ---> and then a BUST. Supply and demand. When you increase the supply of dollars, the value of it goes down, and thus the price of everything else goes up in relation.
Tell me what the cost to America would be if a nuclear and/or chemical attack was launched against NYC or LA using Iraqi weapons smuggled into the country by their terrorist network. Then it doesn't seem so bad.
Does Iraq have a terrorist network? even the CIA couldn't connect them to 9/11. Those terrorists were from our "allies" Saudia Arabia and Egypt. I'm not saying Iraq's not a threat to us but it would be foolish to believe this war is going to put an end to future domestic attacks. In fact, it will likely result in more. Bart: Looks like we're experiencing some blowback from the wig offensive. Homer: It's time to hit him where he lives. Bart: His house? Homer: Bingo.
hehe, people still think taking out Iraq will reduce terrorism. Here's a free tidbit of information for those who worry about chemical weapons being imported. It takes about 5-10 mins of messing around on the cleaning aisle of a grocery store to make enough chlorine gas to make the entire store uninhabitable for a couple of hours. Terrorists can manufacture plenty of nasty chemical surprises with a trip to home depot.
Just to play along, here are a few things you could get for $75 billion: Fund Federal wildfire suppression efforts for about 95 years, Buy about 600,000 fire engines for rural and volunteer fire departments, Fund NASA for 5 years, Fund EPA for almost 10 years, Fund rural water projects for 51 years, Fund the National Park Service for 31 years, Fund The National Archives for 250 years, Fund The Smithsonian for 132 years, About 2,272,727 Ford King Cab Pickups About 15,000,000,000 Value Meals (Super-sized) at McDonalds
Spending money on war gives the economy a boost. Its just what the doctor ordered. GDP goes up and the economy follows.
