All the War That Money Can Buy

Sometimes the business section of any newspaper can be surprising. Today was one of those days in the NY Times. This article by David Leonhardt takes a very cogent look at what we could be getting for the $1.2 trillion we are spending on the Iraq War.

For starters, $1.2 trillion would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign — a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children’s lives.

Combined, the cost of running those programs for a decade wouldn’t use up even half our money pot. So we could then turn to poverty and education, starting with universal preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old child across the country. The city of New Orleans could also receive a huge increase in reconstruction funds.

The final big chunk of the money could go to national security. The recommendations of the 9/11 Commission that have not been put in place — better baggage and cargo screening, stronger measures against nuclear proliferation — could be enacted. Financing for the war in Afghanistan could be increased to beat back the Taliban’s recent gains, and a peacekeeping force could put a stop to the genocide in Darfur.

The thing about that $1.2 trillion figure (and Leonhardt points this out) is that it doesn't fully take into account the attendant costs of this war: a broken military with badly compromised equipment; present and future medical costs for the treatment of those soldiers who do manage to get out of Iraq alive, but with grievous physical and emotional injuries; the loss of economic productivity of those soldiers who were killed or who are too badly wounded to re-enter the work force are just a few that come to mind.

All this for a pack of lies and the madness of a would-be king.