Tuesday, Apr 29, 2008
The Iraq adventure has seriously weakened the U.S. economy, whose woes now go far beyond loose mortgage lending.
NPR Economics News: Joseph Stiglitz on Our 'Three Trillion Dollar War'
The major factors driving up war costs go beyond the number of troops deployed or the operating pace or "optempo" of the war. Since 2004, the average number of military personnel deployed to the region in a given period has grown by 15 percent—but the costs have rocketed by 130 percent. Similarly, the intensity of operations is estimated to have risen by 65 percent during the period—half the rate of cost increases.
In 2007, private security guards working for companies such as Blackwater and Dyncorp were earning up to $1,222 a day; this amounts to $445,000 a year. By contrast, an Army sergeant was earning $140 to $190 a day in pay and benefits, a total of $51,100 to $69,350 a year.
Posted by malct @ 12:56 PM (360 views) Add Comment
6 Comments
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1. malct said...
WAR ON IRAQ Scott Ritter
& William Rivers Pitt
2002 Profile Books
Page 10/11
In the years immediately after the end of World War 11, a newly powerful America began to consider with cold pragmatism where its own self interest lay.
American policy in the middle east, a policy that has existed to this day, a policy that has played an enormous part in the recent history of the region, can be summed up succinctly in the words of famed U.S. State Department official George Kennan, when in 1948 he said, "The U.S. has about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population. In this situation we cannot fail to be the objects of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security.
To do this we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming, and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford the luxury of altruism and world benefaction.
We should cease to talk about such vague and unreal objectives as human rights, the raising of living standards and democratisation. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans the better."
2. malct said...
There is no such thing as a free lunch, and there is no such thing as a free war. The Iraq adventure has seriously weakened the U.S. economy, whose woes now go far beyond loose mortgage lending. You can't spend $3 trillion -- yes, $3 trillion -- on a failed war abroad and not feel the pain at home.
As we head toward November, opinion polls say that voters' main worry is now the economy, not the war. But there's no way to disentangle the two. The United States will be paying the price of Iraq for decades to come. The price tag will be all the greater because we tried to ignore the laws of economics -- and the cost will grow the longer we remain.
The Iraq War Will Cost Us $3 Trillion, and Much More
By Linda J. Bilmes and Joseph E. Stiglitz
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702846_pf.html
3. renting2 said...
As I've said before:
Pax Britannica
followed by
Pax Americana
followed by
Pax ??????????
4. tyrellcorporation said...
Think how many assassins you could have hired for $3,000,000 let alone 3 billion or 3 trillion. Just getting one man to dangle from a rope has been veeerrrry expensive!
5. malct said...
J"ust getting one man to dangle from a rope has been veeerrrry expensive!"
is that what happened?
6. malct said...
focus from 1948
The U.S. has about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population.
In this situation we cannot fail to be the objects of envy and resentment.