Obscene Cost of a Obscene War
I know some of your eyes glaze over when an economist speaks–they don’t call it the “dismal science” for nothing–but Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz has just spoken out over the Iraq war and you need to listen up:
The most important things in life, like life itself, are priceless. But that doesn’t mean that issues involving the preservation of life (or a way of life), like defense, should not be subjected to cool, hard economic analysis.
Shortly before the current Iraq war, when Bush administration economist Larry Lindsey suggested that the costs might range between $100 and $200 billion, other officials quickly demurred. For example, Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels put the number at $60 billion. It now appears that Lindsey’s numbers were a gross underestimate.
First of all, let’s note that for his efforts at truth-telling, Lindsey got fired. What else is new? We’re used to that kind of behavior from Bush Inc. But here’s the real deal: it turns out that Lindsey’s “inflated” numbers were too low by a factor of five to ten times: Stiglitz continues:
Concerned that the Bush administration might be misleading everyone about the Iraq war’s costs, just as it had about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and connection with Al Qaeda, I teamed up with Linda Bilmes, a budget expert at Harvard, to examine the issue. Even we—opponents of the war—were staggered by what we found, with conservative to moderate estimates ranging from slightly less than a trillion dollars to more than $2 trillion.
The implications of this are indeed staggering. I’ll say more in a bit. In the meantime read the story: Obscene Costs of an Obscene War.
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February 7th, 2006 @ 12:10 pm
Nice, a bunch of rich Libs living in Marin $$$$. I bet your the first to call the cops when you see a poor person in your neighborhood. Help the poor but from afar. It’s easy to be politicaly correct from the rich hills of marin in your BMW’s
February 7th, 2006 @ 12:45 pm
Either Mr. Zappa can’t read, or he owns stock in Halliburton and is so darned filthy rich and laden with tax breaks that he doesn’t think a few trillion bucks is too much for us actual taxpayers to pay for Bush’s war.
February 7th, 2006 @ 1:37 pm
Hey Bill, all this poster has in common with Frank Zappa is that they are both Mothers of Invention. It’s just that they invent in different ways…
February 7th, 2006 @ 2:02 pm
More food for thought: the same week that Joe Stiglitz came out with his meticulously researched analysis, the Bush administration used its strong-arm tactics to drive through the House a bill with draconian cuts in health care, education, and welfare. In other words, in precisely those areas that would benefit the working poor, those seeking employment, and the young, the elderly, and the unemployed. That’s where some (far from all) of the funds needed to deal with the $2 trillion tab for the war will come from. But most will come from increased government debt, which will result in higher interest rates, which will result in higher unemployment, vast segments of the middle class having to give up their homes after defaulting on their mortgages, and other nice consequences like that.
Is a picture starting to emerge? They are making great strides at choking off the vital public sector–crucial to the interests of precisely the non-BMW-driving working and middle class. That’s been their goal ever since the Reagan administration (see David Stockman’s memoir) and, with the help of the Iraq war, they are succeeding. Up to us to let people like the reincarnated Mr. Z. know what’s up.