Hermit
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Prime example of a practically perfect person
 
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Having resoundingly lost the Afghan and Iraqi wars we glimpse at the cost.
« on: 2007-03-26 17:24:55 » |
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I see that our champion of the deluded and still lowest rated Virian of all time, Dees/Salamatis, still imagines that "winning" of something, of anything, in Iraq is possible. Judging by the topics he uses for his largely unread plagiarism, the demented old rip and stick artist is still attempting to defend the USA's unwarranted, unjustified and unjustifiable attack on Iraq and probably will similarly attempt to defend an attack on Iran (where the Gulf of Yomkin is being played out by the Brits in preparation for the long predicted Spring attack) for the benefit of the same escatalogical fundamentalists (refer e.g. TV Evangelist John Hagee Wants War With Iran, and He Wants It Now!, Bill Barnwell - another article well worth reading) that America's dim-witted, brain-dead, propaganda swilling populace helped to place in power. As opposed to that, here is a concise piece of arithmetic suggesting that compelling alternatives existed which I find fairly persuasive. Of course, the same argument applies even more strongly to the other major campaign lost by America, and even more swiftly than the USSR suffered, I speak of course of Afghanistan.
Hermit
PS Scott Ritter's brief analysis of the religious fundamentalism involved here - at least on the Islamic side - Scott Ritter: Calling Out Idiot America completely blows away the volumes of propaganda which the neocons have produced and their memebot in our midst has dutifully flooded us with, in accuracy, in analysis and consequence. Worth reading. As is the analysis of the American Christian fundamentalism in the Bill Barnwell article cited above.
Source: rhinocrisy
Authors: hedgehog
Dated: 2007-03-26
Demilitarize the War
Since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Liberation, the U.S. has spent about $410 billion on the war. The head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office has said it will cost at least $1 trillion. [Hermit: By the time that accelerated equipment and long term medical costs are figured in, that number rises to two trillion. If we figure in loss to US businesses based on staff replacement issues the number rises to three trillion. If we are successfully sued for the mess we have made, as we would be if the world pretended to any kind of justice, the number would become inconceivable]. Iraq had 26 million people in it at the beginning. So far, the U.S. has spent about $15,800 per Iraqi. In a country where the per-capita income in 2003 was about $255. The U.S. has spent enough money there that it could have given everyone their per-capita income for each of the last four years and still had enough on hand to keep paying those people their salaries for another 57 years. Meanwhile Iraq would still have functioning industries, farms and infrastructure, which would give people there a much higher quality of life.
If the killing rates found in last year’s Johns Hopkins study have continued, about 730,000 Iraqis have now been killed, along with the UN’s new estimate of 2 million refugees. [A recent Australian study, using the data established by the Bipartisan Commission on Iraq now thinks that the John Hopkins study underestimated the surplus deaths by around 50%. In other words, last years number should have been of the order of 1 million surplus deaths). So to calculate it another way, the U.S. has spent about $562,000 per Iraqi killed. Which is pretty efficient compared to, say, California’s death penalty, which costs the state about $250 million per corpse, according to the LA Times (cited at Death Penalty Focus).
The next-generation U.S. bomber should be outfitted with bomb bays that release $20 bills. I am not joking. [Hermit: Then again, it seems possible that our great grandchildren are either going to never be born due to our stupidity, or if they are, will probably be too busy paying for the legacies of the Bush administration to be loaded down with the costs of new bombers as well. Do the math for yourself. Don't forget to include the effects of interest rates.).]
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