Costly National Whims

In 2003 the then-U.S. deputy defence secretary claimed that several hundred thousand American troops were a hundred thousand too many to defeat Saddam Hussein's army which could not possibly fend off superior U.S. armaments and its professionally trained military. Nor would it cost the country all that much; $60-billion - $95-billion, tops.

This wasn't arrogance exactly, just a kind of American aplomb, typical self-assurance, a placid and innate recognition of the country's value.

In fact, it wouldn't be all that costly to Americans. With all of Iraq's oil riches, once "liberated' from the clutches of an avaricious dictator, the country's oil output could be leveraged to pay itself for its own liberation. "To assume we're going to pay for it all is just wrong", he said, with full assurance of the reality of the future.

That was five years ago. American troop presence on the ground has since been stepped up, and there are 160,000 troops there now, and the liberation of Iraq which somehow turned into a war is bleeding the U.S. economy at the rate of $12-billion each month. Rather a nasty expense for a straining economy.

The Pentagon's figures for the direct cost of military operations in that five-year period stands at $600-billion, while other analysts figure it's more likely to ring in at $1.7-trillion to $4-trillion. Who can count that high? The current recession-heading U.S. economy could use an extra trillion here and there as a shot in its economic arm.

Interest payments alone on the war bill amount to an estimated $615-billion, while an additional $600-billion accounts for disability and health benefits for Iraq war veterans. They're the lucky ones; almost four thousand American servicemen have died in service to their country, in Iraq.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the total cost of Iraq's post-war reconstruction in the neighbourhood of between $50-billion and $100-billion. The CBO has costed the war through to 2017 - looking at the longer range costs, although Senator John McCain speaks in terms of a far longer stay - at $1-trillion, plus $705-billion representing international payments.

Oh, right that's in U.S. dollars, please note. Devalued, somewhat, with other nations' currencies cutting loose. One whole hell of a lot of money dedicated to a casual unseating of an unfriendly dictator.