Originally Posted by
GW in Ohio
The Iraq War: What has it cost?
Monetary cost: $456 billion. Cost could top $1 trillion before it's over.
Human cost: 3,446 coalition deaths -- 3,188 Americans, two Australians, 134 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, six Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 32 Italians, one Kazakh, three Latvian, 19 Poles, two Romanians, five Salvadoran, four Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians -- in the war in Iraq as of March 9, 2007. This doesn't include 10s of thousands of Iraqi deaths and the thousands of American casualties. You want to include the thousands of Iraqis who've been displaced by the war? That'll drive up the cost even more.
Political cost: President Bush's party controlled both Houses of Congress when he gave the order to invade Iraq. But the voters have rejected Mr. Bush's war and his party and now the Democrats control Congress. With the Republican party in disarray and members of Mr. Bush's own party defecting from his Iraq debacle, the GOPers will likely lose more seat in Congress in '08 and quite possibly the White House.
BS.
Foreign policy cost: Practically the entire world was in our corner after 9/11. But as a result of Bush's Iraq war, much of the world has turned against us. The lost prestige and respect is incalculable. Moreover, because this administration's basic approach to foreign policy is, "Diplomacy? Yeah, right. The strong make the rules, so get the fuck out of our way, unless you want some of this," we've lost a lot of friends. There are nations who fear us, but not too many that like us. But relations among nations are very much like relations among people. The schoolyard bully eventually gets his ass kicked. And when he does, everybody cheers.
The "entire world" has NEVER been in our corner. We're on top, and they hate us for it out of envy. It doesn't matter whether we're projecting force, or isolating ourselves. The criticism is the same.
Thanks, George Bush. You've made us into the schoolyard bully, set our foreign policy back 50 years, trashed your own party, cost us the lives of thousands of our best people, and spent half a $trillion.
You're a fucking idiot.