Rumsfeld said "Mission Accomplished" would cost about $660 per American and would be paid for by Iraq's oil revenues. If you had any economic grasp, then you knew he was lying.
George Jr now says the war costs about $25,000 per American. From The Economist of 13 Mar 2008 entitled "Eyeing the Wages of War":
Quote:
Suppose that, five years ago, George Bush had asked every American household to stump up $25,000 to pay for an imminent war on Iraq. How would they have responded?
That money, suitably husbanded, would have paid for arming, provisioning and remunerating the troops; treating the wounded; and restoring the army's strength in the aftermath. It would have paid just compensation for the death and injury of American servicemen and contractors, and it would have covered America's outlays on reconstruction. It would also have allowed America to subsidise the price of oil by $10 a barrel—offsetting the disruption to Iraq's supply.
Mr Bush never asked, of course. But this hefty sum is nonetheless just part of the toll the war may take on America by the time it is over, according to a new book by Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel prize-winner in economics, and Linda Bilmes, a budget and public finance expert at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
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Figure the war will costs about $3million per American or maybe $8million per every employed American. Those bills will be coming due. Meanwhile, that is a conservative number from those authors. Numbers probably will be higher due to inflation, dollar deflation, and other factors cited by the authors. Who must pay those bills?
Those who only understand war as a solution (ie 'big dics') must now deny this. Remember, America did not pay for most of Desert Storm. So the resulting downturn was mild. But America has yet to pay for "Mission Accomplished". Changes imposed upon the American economy should be considered when planning your financial future.