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The Iraq War has cost us ~$6,000,000,000,000 (that's ~$17k per US citizen). Under Obama's plan, that money could be used to pay for two years of community coll
by RIMR 12y ago
The Iraq War has cost us ~$6,000,000,000,000 (that's ~$17k per US citizen).
Under Obama's plan, that money could be used to pay for two years of community college for every student willing to do the require work for the next 1000 years!
Of course we shouldn't "buy everything that's cheaper than the Iraq war", but that's not what is being argued. This was just to show a contrast between two ~10-year projects. It doesn't take a lot of work to figure out which investment has a higher return.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- sliverstorm 12y agoHow do you propose we evaluate the return on the Iraq War?
- brianbreslin 12y agoThis could open an entire can of worms. I would be curious to see how any war ROI is calculated when not in a conquer and pillage situation (spoils of war and what not).
- hdevalence 12y agoI would count Iraq as a conquer and pillage situation -- see, for instance, _Pay Any Price_ by James Risen.
- tomjen3 12y agoJust because it cannot be measured does not mean it doesn't have value. As a European I am exceedingly glad the US got involved in WWII, since otherwise the Soviets would have won, but how do you put a prize on my freedom and the freedom of future generations?
- twoodfin 12y agoWhere do you get that $6T figure? It's absurdly larger than any budgetary expenditure.
- dredmorbius 12y agoWikipedia cites Brown and CBO and Brown studies putting the cost at $1 - $2.4 trillion. That's $3200 - $7700 per person in the US. $6 trillion exceeds that considerably, no idea on the source (I'm not OP), but inclusive of civilian costs to Iraqis it might be a defensible number. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War