“The total cost of the Iraq war may reach $456 billion in September, according to the National Priorities Project, an organization that tracks public spending.” Boston.com explored a number of alternate scenarios in which $456 billion was spent on something, well, productive, including the following:
According to World Bank estimates, $54 billion a year would eliminate starvation and malnutrition globally by 2015, while $30 billion would provide a year of primary education for every child on earth. At the upper range of those estimates, the $456 billion cost of the war could have fed and educated the world’s poor for five and a half years.
The impact of this war, this president, his enablers and his supporters are absolutely catastrophic on a global scale.
UPDATE: The Iraq occupation has cost the Ojai Valley, home to approximately 29,000 people, over $43 million. What could the Ojai Valley do with $43 million? Who’s going to repay the money? Our kids, our grandkids, their grandkids.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Economically, the entire war in Iraq is simply sickening. If we combine this with the loss of life (on both sides) and lost opportunities for good will, it is simply tragic.
Another great site comparing May 1, 2003 (the day Bush declared ‘Mission Accomplished’) and May 1, 2007.
Think Progress: Mission Accomplished by the Numbers
The Empire is in its death spasm. Ojai should be thinking of survival. We need to wake up. The money system is eating itself. The solution? Convert to an economy of love. It is possible to live on love. The elite moneyists are creating this war and raking in the dough. They are banking on money. Love is the only power big enough to break this corrupt money bank. Thanks for the info.
A week ago, some republicans went to bush about the war. They told him that his war policy could cost the republican party more congressional seats along with any shot at retaining the white house. No where in those deliberate leaks(that I saw), was there a mention of any concern for the death and destruction of our men and women over in Iraq, or of the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqy people.
The far out right care only about power, and nothing else. Some of these republicans will for the first time, in the next few weeks, withdraw their support for the war. Because the Democrats strategy is working in forcing them to take sides, particularly against their sitting president.
I wish the Democrats would just stop the funding all together. Regardless if we leave tomorrow or months from now, the results will be the same, except, that our dead and wounded will increase, as will the Iraqy death toll.
Imagine if this was Ojai, Meiners Oaks, Mira Monte, Oak View, where the bombs went off all day, all night. Fire crews picking up dead bodies from the Ojai avenue, at any place of worship, meditation mount, your favourite store, restaurant. One morning you go out to get the paper, and you are kidnapped, for you are suspected of collaborating with the enemy. In Iraq, there are so many differing factions, you don’t know who is who, so something as simple as saying hi or buying something could be construed as collaborating. Or you are kidnapped for the purpose of being a forced driver of a car bomb, and you do it, because your family will be murdered if you don’t. This is what the Iraqy people have been enduring for five years, and it won’t stop until we get out of there, and let them settle their differences there own way.
It’s not a pleasant thought, that above. It doesn’t even amount to that, in the minds of those who champion this war, it’s only a concern of power and nothing else, as demonstrated by those republicans who had a talk with the prez, letting him know they want retain power, and if they have to, they will vote against him. To me, that is so Sic.
I think it’s worth noting that our elected officials would never dream of proposing to spend $54 billion a year to eliminate starvation globally or $30 billion a year to educate for every child on earth, though commiting these funds to a war which does not serve taxpayers’ interests is not a problem. Eliminating global hunger and educating every child would not just be a noble thing to do from a humanitarian perspective, but it would greatly reduce the animosity that our current policies engender. It would go a long way toward bringing a fractured world together, enabling us to fund constructive pursuits instead of destructive ones.
“Peace – An End ”
Peace is a word
Of the sea and the wind.
Peace is a bird who sings
As you smile.
Peace is the love
Of a foe as a friend;
Peace is the love you bring
To a child
Searching for me
You look everywhere,
Except beside you.
Searching for you
You look everywhere,
But not inside you.
Peace is a stream
From the heart of a man;
Peace is a man, whose breadth s the dawn.
Peace is a dawn
On a day without end;
Peace is the end, like death Of the war.
-Fripp, Sinfield
on 9/11, the Stock Play, the Bankers took a hundred times MORE
money from us .. $50 Trillion, Fifty Trillion Dollars!!
that is $50,000,000,000,000 !!!
Fifty THOUSAND Billion Dollars!
that is Ten Thousand Dollars from
EACH AND EVERY individual on the PLANET!
WHO OWNS YOU?
The 50 trillion dollar theft is just an example of what is happening all the time in the money scam with is so prevalent that we do not even see it.
This relates back to recent comments on another thread. The solution is, tune in, turn on, drop out.
How much of the money you earn today will go to your corporate and government masters? 80%? 90%?
How many innocent women and children will you kill in their sleep tonight with the dollars that are being withheld from today’s paycheck?
How much of the money you earn today will you actually spend on things that bring you joy?
Any of it?
How much would you really need to earn today if:
- You owned your own land and home free and clear of debt, something considered a right in most parts of the world, and something even the poorest peasants in most countries have;
- You and your children had excellent education and health care paid for as a matter of right from your taxes, as the price of putting up with government, as is also a right in most civilized countries;
- Your water, electricity, internet, and similar utilities were owned and run by the community, as part of the commons?
- You did not have to drive 50-200 miles every day to get to and from work;
- You had time to tend your own garden and trade vegetables and eggs and chickens and you name it with your like-minded neighbors.
These are the questions we might start answering by focusing on turning the Ojai Valley into a model sustainable green community.
It doesn’t but universal health care, though it would more than cover that cost. It dosen’t buy research into alternative fuel or the infrastructure for solar and wind power that would seriously reduce our dependance on oil. It doesn’t make us any safer; in fact it makes us drastically less safe. It doesn’t even lower the price of a gallon of gas for the suv drivers. It just pays for more coroprate welfare for Haliburton, KBR, Lockheed Martin, United Defense, Blackwater, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics and on and on. Here’s a bit about the cost of this illegal war from Bill Moyers
A similar question closer to home:
What would the money being spent by the City of Ojai on the initiatives SLAPP buy?
“How many innocent women and children will you kill in their sleep tonight with the dollars that are being withheld from today’s paycheck?”
this one has troubled me for a long time. Is Another Way Possible?
sure is: Peace Taxes.
Let’s face it. The system is broken beyond repair. Time to recycle it. Tune in to truth, turn on to love and drop out of the system, as Uncle Timothy said. “Is Another Way Possible” above really nailed it. I am getting more radical as to solutions. I speak as an individual, a party of one, and take the heat as a fringe element to myself, so no other person or group is painted with the same brush as I am painted with. I disassociate myself from Democratic party like appeasers. Money, sex and violence are the three main roots of evil and this Iraq war illustrates the premise. Thanks for the info.
The war drags on and drags Ojai into it. I have asked the Ojai council to speak up against the war. They won’t. Sort of shows where their hearts are: with the money. Remember, they are our representatives; the ones we voted in. That makes us culpable for the war, too. Wake up, Ojai!