In 2003 I carried a sign at a local protest demonstration against the impending war and occupation in Iraq: "How much will the war cost? $1 Trillion!" The lady waving a large American flag on the other side of the street shouted, "You're crazy! The war will pay for itself!"
At the time I was using the estimates of economist Joseph Stiglitz in an article in
The New York Review of Books. An article in
Politico makes earlier projections seem far too modest
.
"The final bill for U.S. military involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan could be as high as $4.4 trillion, according to a comprehensive new report Tuesday.
In the 10 years since American troops were sent into Afghanistan, the federal government has already spent between $2.3 trillion and $2.7 trillion, say the authors of the study by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies."
Stiglitz's own estimates, summarized on a Democracy Now! radio broadcast last fall, run $4 to $5 trillion, counting all of the war's costs to American society.
Today the patriotic lady who waved the flag so intensely is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps she a Tea Party activist demanding that the poor, sick, elderly, and students make "sacrifices" to pay for the nation's spiraling debt.
