It’s a shame some of the other comments posted here are missing a critical point (Bush-bashing being the sport that it is).  There is a science to budgeting that results in the ability to quantify (reasonably well, anyway) the different cost components of a war, including the real present value of future payments incurred by one soldier.  Linda Bilmes always does an extraordinary analytical job, she should be commended for this valuable public service. 

As for the war itself, I would suspect that at this point the possible achievement of ‘victory’, or whatever they’re calling it, by adding a few troops far supersedes the consideration of the long-term costs of said personnel.  If you believed that 20000 more people would do the job, wouldn’t it be worth the investment, so to speak?  I think the Democrats will put on a nice show for the voters but ultimately approve them. 

Please support our troops, out there and here at home.  The psychological damage doesn’t fade with the headlines, and the job of rehabilitation is not one simply for a government bureaucracy or the families of the wounded.  Don’t confuse the war with the people, please.

To vet240. Thanks for your excellent post on 1/07 at 7:46 PM. I particularly agree with you about the way Bush has played right into the jihadis strengths and in doing so, we have made them stronger and us weaker. We certainly can’t keep throwing money at this problem at the current rate forever. Here is a “Real Time” display that shows how quickly the money is flying out of the US Treasury into Iraq. I encourage everyone who reads this to watch for at least a few minutes and think about what else this money might be better spent on:

http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

It’s actually around 2 billion a week according to a congressional report in September:

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/09/28/cost_of_iraq_war_nearly_2b_a_week/

So amazingly even your 7 billion dollar number seems too low!Particularly if you factor in the $370 million / week we are also spending in Afghanistan.

They say that if history teaches us anything, it is that it repeats itself, and we all remember what happened to the Soviet Union right? I would equate what’s happening to us right now in Iraq and Afghanistan with what happened to the Soviets in Afghanistan rather than calling it “Bush’s Vietnam” as Senator Ted Kennedy just did today. But we can’t very well call it “Bush’s Afghanistan” can we? So for the sake of a sound bite, we make the wrong comparison. At least we can hope that Kennedy and the Dems are on the right track with the idea of trying to block funds for further troop expansion, but it seems like “too little too late” to me.

On your thoughts for choking off the supply of guns, ammo and explosive, I really don’t see much hope of ever stopping the flow of arms into the hands of just about anyone who want to arm themselves. The arms cartels all over the world are too widespread and to interested in profit to ever be convinced to stop making guns and explosives available. If anything, I see it going in the other direction - where ever more powerful weapons become increasingly available to people who have no sanity, conscience or moral code, and are willing to kill anyone and anything they can in pursuit of their utterly crazy and depraved goals.

Since pulling out and nuking Iraq and Afghanistan into oblivion is quite out of the question. I don’t have any answers. Just more questions. Like “Exactly how do we stop the growth of the jihadis?” and “Why is the world still so hung up on religion?” And lastly, “When do the impeachment proceedings begin?” I know that it will not be possible to impeach the bastard, but that didn’t stop them from trying with Clinton did it? And Clinton did not even come close to betraying the US like Bush has. All he did was get a free BJ. Bush has totally screwed us. (of course Clinton has a bit more complicity in all of this, but I hope you get my point

As a disappointed Republican and Veteran, myself and others find it hard to believe that congress approved going to war based on lies and deception. I know a lot of die hards refuse to believe that Bush and Chaney along with Rumsfelt use false information to go after Saddam. If they would take the time to go back to 9/11 and watch the TV reruns they would see the deception taking place. Powell went before the UN using false information(knowing it was false),the news media had published the facts on the Alum. tubes two week prior to the UN summit, yet Powell used false information before the UN and the world, the world and members of the UN knew it was a lie.Everyone knew it was a lie except members of congress!

The worse part of the deception was Bush and Chaney tried to used the same type lies and deception to destroy Social Security( Now Bush is trying to let illegals and mexico draw from our trust fund). In case no one knows, we have 17 foreign nation drawing Social Security, don’t take my word for it, ask your members of congress.

What kind of man who calls himself a Christian and American, that would used lies and deception to put America and the American people in danger.Bush, Chaney,Rumsfelt and Rice did not want the weapons inspectors to complete their job because they were afraid it would prevent them from going after Saddam.

Lets get down to the lowest of the low, no one that I know could sink this low!

While our men and women are forced to go to war leaving their children behind,being killed and wonded, children forced to grow up with out a mom and dad. The men and women that received treatment for injuries they received,were given bills for their medical care, because Rumsfelt was trying to save money to pay for the war.

President Bush formed a commission to study the benefits for disabilities of disabled veterans. Rumsfelt and the president tried and are trying to change the laws passed by congress for disability benefits. Rumsfeld tried to have a review of 72,000 disabled veterans claims to try to take away their benefits, it back fired because thousands of emails were sent to the president and congress. Now they are trying to change the names of the disabilities, so they can change the benefits.Senator Buyer was part of the problem and a rubber stamp for the president and Rumsfelt.

The commission will complete their study at the end of 2007, all veterans need to write congress and demand they reject any benefit cuts.

What would you call the men that would abuse their power of office, that has sent thousands of men and women to their death, the ones that became disabled to be with out benefits to help them live a half way normal life that survived. For a man to send men and women to their death based on lies and deception and then while they fight and die take away their life line if they become disabled serving their country.

Fighting men and women trust their leaders and for the leaders to betray them while they fight and die, is a disgrace in the eyes of God and the world!

Every American needs to watch the people they elect and remove them from office if they fail to uphold their oath of office. The majority of voter went to the polls and removed the corrupt republicans from office that was up for relection, in 2008 we can remove the rest of them. We sent congress and the president a message to get us out of Iraq and stop the billions given away in foreign aid, to secure our borders. Bush has failed to hear the people and also some republican who remain in office! The American people are at war with the corrupting in Washington!

Mexicans crossed our borders with weapons and attacked the national guard forcing them to with draw and Bush had done nothing!

After a 30 year career in the Military I come away with the feeling of shame.My countries policy makers lead us into this quagmire, can’t get us out of it and don’t want to pay the price of taking care of our disabled Veterans.
Standby and watch how the rules for being classified disabled change in the near future.If you are disturbed now by what you see and hear; I don’thave the words to describe how sickened you will feel when the head hunters are through redesignating what disabilities are.

Our treatment of our vets, wounded and otherwise, has been and continues to be shameful. 

So is our treatment of our enlisted personnel and their families.  We convince kids, too many of whom “volunteer” because that’s the only way they see to afford college and the proverbial way up out of poverty, to serve some vague nobel cause.  Then, we pay them dirt wages such that they and their families qualify for food stamps, even if they do all their shopping at the base exchange.

We pay them relatively handsomely to go into combat.  Then, if (or when) they suffer physical or psychological wounds after a single tour, let alone 4 or 5 or more, we use any excuse possible to avoid providing them the needed care or disability pay. 

Our employers fear that hiring someone who has seen combat will present problems and expenses they will have to bear, so they choose not to hire vets. 

And now we hear that the Army, in its infinite wisdom, has sent letters urging some 200 or more of our Iraq fiasco’s dead and wounded to re-enlist.

Is there nothing this administration has done right about this war?

George Bush and Dick Cheney ought to have their personal fortunes tapped into to help rehabilitate these young men and women. Of course that would be admitting complicity in these horrible damages of war. Maybe the companies that have been making huge profits could also pay some of the bills

Linda Bilmes deserves kudos for this excellent dig. Thank you so much for writing it.

The amazing thing to me is that the mainstream media lets the US government get away with this without more coverage. Well, perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised by the lack of nightly coverage. The sad state of affairs that the brave men and women who serve our country face if they are unfortunate enough to be wounded or need psychological council as a result of their service is not at all surprising and neither is the lack of news coverage. The fact is that most consumers of the mainstream news media don’t want to hear this type of story. It simply too depressing. It’s not sexy enough to sell, and that is what most everything in our dysfunctional country is about these days. Can you sell it?

I certainly hope the lack of response that this piece has so far garnered is related more to the fact that is was just posted today rather than any lack of interest and sympathy by the people who frequent this site and are generally so happy to respond to posts about the hanging of Saddam and other such “important ” matters. Please don’t get me wrong… I am totally against this crazy war, and I rue the day that current administration came to power and decided to expand the Bush / Hussein family feud to include the US Armed forces. But it seems truly shameful to treat our soldiers like this, despite the fact that they volunteered and so many claim to support the effort over there. One has to wonder… do they support it because the really believe in the mission, or is it because they have been brainwashed by the media and the government to think that there is actually a chance that the mission has any possibility of succeeding. It seems to me that democratizing Iraq or any Muslim nation has no chance of ultimate success, and this should be painfully obvious to anyone who has even a vague understanding of what modern day Islam is really about.

But regardless of whether you think the mission is doomed or not, or whether you believe the soldiers lives, limbs and psychological well being is being wasted for nothing or for a valiant cause, they are humans and they deserve better. Much better.

Thank you for reminding me of this ... our most important casualties. The young men and women who survived and often with disabling and disfiguring injuries.

People are what is important. Not oil or land or governments, or the agendas of political twits!

I have been saying from the beginning, of Bush’s open-ended war that he is the greatest ally the terrorists ever recruited. Our attack on Iraq in fact destabilized the Middle East. Our (Bush’s) attack is the greatest recruiting tool ever devised. The Insurgent/terrorist/foreign fighter activities in Iraq bear witness to this. For every person we kill three takes his place. For every one of those we either rightly or wrongly detain we give the “terrorists” one more recruit.

The harsh reality of war is that at some point this country, as any other country will not be able to afford the cost not only in lives and sacrifice but in dollars.

To understand our enemy is important. The term terrorist is used for any local or intenational, loosely affiliated group of individuals who decide to use acts of indiscriminate violence to instill fear in those subjected to the act, but more importantly, to those who witness the act. Their costs are minimal in dollars used, to attract and arm personnel.

The strategy of the larger terrorist groups is simple. Antagonize the “Enemy” nations to the point they must enter into a prolonged conflict. Force those nations to expend their wealth to the point that they bankrupt, or at least to the point they can no longer sustain a large force abroad.

What is the ultimate goal of the “terrorists”? I think it is simply to validate their daily criminal activities hidden under the guise of whatever “Cause” they claim to aspire to.

We have a fortress. It’s called the Border. We should pull our troops out of Iraq. We should spend a portion of the savings on border security, including all coastal and land entries.

The only way to fight terrorism is with small units trained to infiltrate, locate, and exterminate.

We simply cannot afford to spend five Billion dollars each month (actually it’s 7 billion) even if we kill 10,000 at a net cost per kill of $500,000.00 each! Do a cost benefit analysis before we’re bankrupt you idiots!

Thousands of children world-wide are walking around with AK47’s and ammunition! The final thing all countries should do is stop making and selling small arms and explosives anywhere! Outlaw the possession of these as well. Over time the supply will dry up and these Terrorists will have limited resources with which to conduct their acts.

*Sigh*...to anyone who’s been paying attention over the last five-odd years, this is by no means a surprise.  From the very beginning of the War In Iraq, the Bush administration has displayed a habitual tendency to underestimate what will be needed.  First they underestimated the number of troops that would probably be needed in order to accomplish the objective—then they underestimated the amount of equipment that would be needed to keep the soldiers protected in combat, forcing some of our military personnel to resort to such drastic measures as digging through trash piles for anything they could salvage.  Remember Rumsfeld’s infamous crack in response to a question from a soldier about getting armor for his HumVee?  “You don’t go to war with the army you want, you go to war with the army you have.”  This is just more of the same, folks—Standard Operating Procedure for the Bush administration.

How these people manage to sleep at night and look at themselves in the mirror every morning totally escapes me…if I were in their position, I would be absolutely ashamed.