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Costs of Iraq war are unbearably high

June 11, 2007 12:35 am

Donald Rumsfeld's estimate for the cost of the Iraq war was $50 billion. The actual cost to date is about $450 billion, climbing at the rate of about $275 million a day.

These are only the operating costs. They do not reflect the billions more that will be needed after the war ends--billions to re-equip and retrain the military to get readiness back to the pre-war level, higher recruiting costs because large bonuses are necessary to get people to enlist or re-enlist, or interest on the war debt.

Long-term medical costs alone could be $400 billion or more--and that amount does not include lifetime disability payments of another $150 billion or more. Total long-term costs of the Iraq war are now estimated at $1 trillion to $2 trillion.

This incomprehensible figure does not reflect the sacrifice borne solely by the million or so families whose children and grandchildren risk becoming the dead and maimed while the rest of us are asked for nothing.

It does not reflect the death and misery we have unleashed on the Iraqis, that faceless irrelevance deprived by our government of even the simple dignity of being counted.

It does not reflect the loss of American prestige or the instability, chaos, and needless creation of additional enemies.

War apologists would have us believe that Saddam was so evil that removing him was worth any cost. That is simply nonsense.

It is moral and political cowardice to allow this travesty to continue and its architects to go unpunished.