Iraq war could cost US 'more than $2-trillion'

The real cost to the United States of the Iraq war is likely to be between $1-trillion and $2-trillion, up to 10 times more than previously thought, according to a report written by a Nobel Prize-winning economist and a Harvard budget expert.

The study, which expanded on traditional estimates by including such costs as lifetime disability and health care for troops injured in the conflict as well as the impact on the American economy, concluded that the US government is continuing to underestimate the cost of the war.

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The paper on the real cost of the war, written by Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001, and Linda Bilmes, a Harvard budget expert, is likely to add to the pressure on the White House on the war. It also followed the revelation this week that the White House had scaled back ambitions to rebuild Iraq and did not intend to seek funds for reconstruction.

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Stiglitz, a former World Bank chief economist, said the paper, which will be available on Josephstiglitz.com, does not attempt to explain whether Americans were deliberately misled or whether the underestimate was due to incompetence.

But in terms of the total cost of the war, "there may have been alternative ways of spending a fraction of that amount that would have enhanced America's security more, and done a better job in winning the hearts and minds of those in the Middle East and promoting democracy".


http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=260724&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/

has done something to america that we will pay for for more than one generation.

we have have allowed bushco to saddle us all with his unreality -- his ''war on terror'' -- this hole that bushco has dug will go a long way to changing this country in incalculable ways.