Sunday, October 09, 2005
The Cost of Incompetence
The human toll of the Iraq War continues, with countless deaths, including 20 US soldiers in the past week.
The Congressional Research Service and Congressional Budget Office have also calculated the costs in dollars and found that we are spending $6 billion a month in Iraq, with an estimated price tag of $570 billion by 2010.
"Those expenses are growing even as recovery costs from hurricanes Katrina and Rita and mammoth federal deficits are intensifying pressure on the Bush administration and Congress to find ways to save money.
A separate study by the Congressional Budget Office found it will be difficult for the Pentagon to sustain current troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan without rotating troops into the war zone more frequently and using more National Guard brigades. And even those steps will not be adequate long-term solutions."
It takes amazing incompetence to begin office with an unprecedented surplus and to end up, five years later, with mammoth federal deficits. The saddest part of all is that the war in Iraq (the "front" in Bush's so-called War on Terror) has actually increased rather than decreased terror attacks. If it were only money down the drain, it would be bad enough. But it's much, much worse.
The Congressional Research Service and Congressional Budget Office have also calculated the costs in dollars and found that we are spending $6 billion a month in Iraq, with an estimated price tag of $570 billion by 2010.
"Those expenses are growing even as recovery costs from hurricanes Katrina and Rita and mammoth federal deficits are intensifying pressure on the Bush administration and Congress to find ways to save money.
A separate study by the Congressional Budget Office found it will be difficult for the Pentagon to sustain current troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan without rotating troops into the war zone more frequently and using more National Guard brigades. And even those steps will not be adequate long-term solutions."
It takes amazing incompetence to begin office with an unprecedented surplus and to end up, five years later, with mammoth federal deficits. The saddest part of all is that the war in Iraq (the "front" in Bush's so-called War on Terror) has actually increased rather than decreased terror attacks. If it were only money down the drain, it would be bad enough. But it's much, much worse.
