As of July 6, 2006, 2,549 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, 53% under 25 years old. Another 18,786 have been wounded, 20 percent of whom have serious brain or spinal injuries. Thirty percent of soldiers develop serious mental health problems within their first three months back in US. Many receive mental health treatment while overseas. Do you have a relative or friend 17-25 years old? Think of that person serving, being injured, or being killed in Iraq. Did you know that only four members of Congress had children in the military at the time they voted in favor of the war?
Incidentally, the total number of soldiers killed in Iraq is only 200 less than the total of 2,749 people who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001. Remember the outrage that we felt at being attacked in our country, in New York City, and the loss of so many innocent lives. Why do our leaders not feel the same outrage for the lives lost in Iraq? In fact, the total number of Iraqi civilians killed during this conflict, while rough estimates, greatly surpasses 40,000 human lives. That does not include the estimate of roughly 55,000 Iraqi insurgents killed as well as the 4,886 Iraqi military and police killed.
Our invasion of Iraq, while touted as a war to decrease terrorism, has only increased terrorism and the hatred for Americans by those throughout the world. Data from the National Counterterrorism Center shows that terrorist attacks have increased since our attack on Iraq. In 2003, there were 208 terrorist attacks causing 625 deaths and 3,646 injuries, and in 2005 there were 11,111 terrorist attacks causing 14,602 deaths and 24,705 injuries. That’s a 5000% increase in terrorist attacks and a 2000% increase in deaths.
The human cost of war is not only apparent in the numbers of deaths and injuries; the human cost of war can also be computed through the taxpayer dollars spent and the lost opportunities for countless taxpaying American citizens. The money spent so far or approved to spend in Iraq surpasses $435 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money. Unfortunately, $9 billion of those taxpayer dollars are unaccounted for in Iraq, lost. Over $500 million dollars worth of spare parts have also been lost. The Pentagon classified $1.4 billion dollars of Halliburton charges as “unreasonable and unsupported.” Incidentally, Halliburton, the company Dick Cheney used to run, has been awarded more than 50% of all contract work in Iraq. Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard University adjunct lecturer Linda Bilmes released a study that conservatively projects costs of the Iraq war to US taxpayers at more than $2 trillion dollars.
Our national debt is now more than $8.4 trillion dollars. In 2005, the U.S. government spent $352 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money on interest payments to the holders of the national debt. So far in 2006, the total is more than $338 billion in interest payments. Meanwhile, the U.S. government spent only $61 billion dollars on education in 2005, and Congress cut student aid by $12 billion in the proposed 2007 federal budget and decreased special education funding by 49%, allocations to school improvement programs by 75%, and adult vocational education funding by 74%, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
Most of the discussion on the war in Iraq tends to center on the reasons why we invaded Iraq. Weapons of mass destruction, a ruthless dictator, breaking a treaty, connections to Al Quada – take your pick. No weapons were found. The government was caught in lies about their knowledge of false intelligence. The United Nations did not sanction the invasion of Iraq. There were no actual known ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Quada, so the idea that Iraq was partly responsible for 9/11 was falsely propagated. The United States played the big bully of the world and unilaterally decided to start a war under false pretenses.
At what cost?
