how much has the war in iraq cost the american people so far?

Question

this is a non-political question , its one on economics, no blame game is implied

Answer 1

It has not really cost the average American anything. The burden is being borne by a very small segment of our society.

If you ask somebody at random to describe how the war in Iraq has changed the way they live - they will not be able to give you an answer in about 85% of the cases.

The cost of the Iraq war are negligible when compared to the size of our economy.

Answer 2

The true cost can never be known, because many of the military costs are incurred whether or not we are at war. Kind of like how much does it cost to drive your car? If you don't drive it you still pay insurance, taxes, etc.

Some of the costs will come down through years of Veteran's Administration costs for caring for severely wounded military, providing therapy, prostheses, psychiatric care, medications, etc. etc.

http://thecostofwar.com is a good estimate of what other things we could do with our national financial treasure, but the lives lost cannot be put into dollars on a spreadsheet, unless you start to 'what if' these people had survived, earned wages, had families, paid taxes... way too complex to even estimate.

The war is wrong. The lies that got us there are pathetic. The president needs to get our troops home if he really wants to 'support' them.

Stop the waste.

Stop the killing.

Stop the deaths.

Barak Obama is the only candidate announced who is consistently against this insane war. He may have a way to end it.

Answer 3

So far, hardly any except for a couple thousand casualities.

The financial part may be looked at as "Practical Warfare Training to the Armed Forces", the ammunition used - would go outdated and expire anyway if not used within stipulated time from the date of manufacture. The various arms need to be tested in actual battlefield conditions.

The supremacy of American warmateriel is being proven- enabling easier marketing of same to other countries.

Increased threat perception by non NATO nations is forcing them to kow tow American lines in more ways than one as well as creating huge markets for American Arms and ammunition.

All this while securing the interests of American Oil Companies more or less monopolising the Intrenational Oil Market- hence bringing huge revenues to a near bankrupt USA which owes upward of 3 trillion dollars in govt to govt international debt.

Answer 4

I've seen estimates as low as $300,000,000,000 and as high as $1,000,000,000,000. Actually, I think the latter figure includes some future estimates.

An exact figure is probably impossible to come up with, as people will argue over what should or should not be considered an expense related to the war. Furthermore, the war is largely outside the budgetary process.

Answer 5

It has cost around 88 billion a year just for a base. Not only Billions pissed away and not accounted by the firms such as Halbutron to rebuild. Reline a lot of very deep contracts beside the moral issues it is a crime.

Answer 6

Enough to give every man, woman, & child on the PLANET- a $5. bill. (& just THINK how MANY of those Bills could save the children they would be given to- from starvation!). Is that SAD- or what? But of course, no one's to "blame..."

Answer 7

Its approximately 350 billion dollars and counting.

Thats over $1000 per American!

Answer 8

US $367,541,136,608 as at 01:55 EDST according to Congressional Appropriations.
The website also allows comparison of how that money could be spent on health, teachers, public housing etc.

Answer 9

You can go to www.nationalpriorities.org/index where it has a clock that ticks the cost off per second, as well as what it costs your community. It's in the trillions.

Answer 10

A lot less than it would have cost if Saddam was allowed and Iran had been allowed to run free without any restraints.