4000 lives and 500 billion dollars later

Ken — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:15:56 +0000

The Iraq war is still going on. It's been five years now. It's like we've almost forgotten, what with the subprime mortgage crisis and recession and all. But yeah, people are still dying, and we're draining money into the desert. 4000 U.S. troops have been killed. And we've spent over $500 billion in direct military costs. We continue to spend about $10 billion a month.

Let's look at what $10 billion a month would buy:

All of the oil that the U.S. imports from the Persian Gulf (about $7.5 billion/month)
About 28% of our gasoline consumption; or, enough to reduce the price of gas by nearly a dollar a gallon
Three new nuclear reactors each month (at roughly $3 billion apiece); in five years, nuclear power could be generating over half of the country's electrical needs
A complete solar power system for 250,000 homes every month; in five years, 13% of houses could be powered solely by solar energy

You get the idea. (Of course, this still pales when compared to the cost of health care in this country. But that's an article for another day.)

Meanwhile, 4000 U.S. troops have died. That's two lives per day for every day of the war. It barely makes the news any more, when a roadside bomb kills a Humvee full of soldiers. But you can bet that for the families affected, it still matters.

The good news? Only 10 months are left in Bush's presidency.

10 months. $100 billion. 600 deaths.