If we didn't spend all that money on the Iraq war, what could have the US spent the money on.?

Question

How much money have we spent over there anyways?

Answer 1

We could have spent the money securing our infrastructure against terrorism, funding a highly trained security force for airport security like Israel has, investing in alternative fuel technology so we could detach ourselves from those that hate us.

Check out the link for a running tab on how much the war is costing.

Answer 2

Your question implies that the Iraq war is a waste of time and money.

If we didn't spend all those trillions on social programs, what could the government have spent that money on?

Answer 3

We ARE a poor country! So poor in fact, we're in debt up to our ears. There's this thing called a global recession, which means NOBODY has any money.

Answer 4

The Boston Globe did an interesting piece on this a couple weeks back...

• "U.S. drivers consume approximately 384.7 million gallons of gasoline a day. Retail prices averaged $3.00 a gallon in early November. Breaking it down, $611 billion could buy gasoline for everybody in the United States, for about 530 days."

• "In fiscal 2008, Medicare benefits will total $454 billion, according to a Heritage Foundation summary. The $611 billion in war costs is 17 times the amount vetoed by the president for a $35 billion health."

• "According to World Bank estimates, $54 billion a year would eliminate starvation and malnutrition globally by 2015, while $30 billion would provide a year of primary education for every child on earth. At the upper range of those estimates, the $611 billion cost of the war could have fed and educated the world's poor for seven years."

• "At almost $15 billion, Boston's Central Artery project has been held up as the nation's most expensive public works project. Now multiply that by 40 and you're getting close to US taxpayers’ commitment to democracy in Iraq – so far."

• "At published rates for this year, $611 billion translates into almost 14 million free rides for a year at Harvard University. Tuition and fees at the University of Massachusetts-Boston could be paid for over 53 million years."

Of course, nothing in Boston is done without at least a slight connection to the Red Sox, so staffers added: "The Red Sox and Daisuke Matsuzaka agreed on a six-year, $52 million contract. The war cost could be enough to have Dice-K mania for more than 70,000-some years at this year's rate."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003671207

Answer 5

It's funny. The one thing the Federal Government IS tasked with is national security. They are not responsible for buying my gas, building me a home, paying for my health insurance, buying my food, paying for my school, building my school, paying ANYBODY'S tuition, ending world starvation, saving the whales, paying for abortions, gene therapy, stem cell research, mid-night basketball, or any of all that other social welfare crap. IT'S NOT THEIR JOB OR RESPONSIBILITY. We do it out of the goodness of our hearts and wallets. Right now we have other priorities.

If the Islamic Extremists win, all the other stuff won't mean sh*t.

Answer 6

On the Iran war

Answer 7

On our country instead of thiers. I cant get over how terrorist threats are scarier than everyday threats that faaarrr outnumber them in deaths. Murders, Car crashes, Natural disasters.

Answer 8

well the libs could decide that 19 lunatics hijacked planes and flew them into buildings, so we need to ban planes, and then we could spend that money on that, or maybe we could buy a big air conditioner.

Answer 9

Enough nukes to wipe out the entire middle-east would have been far cheaper.

Answer 10

$300,000,000.oo per day to kill a total of 15 bad guys per day.
$822,000,000.oo per day to pay INTEREST on our foreign debt.

We should have not been spending it, period.

The funny thing, is we could have offered a 1 billion dollar (1,000 Million) reward for bin ladens head if we saved up war money for 3 days. Instead, we only offer 25 million.

If the money had to go to something else, a good idea would be putting it into a untouchable Social Security holding, and purchasing back debt from China & Japan.