Cost!

This is coolbert:

From the Chicago Tribune last Saturday:

"Iraq War costs set to surpass Vietnam"

"Volunteer force and technology and are keys"

"WASHINGTON - - U.S. spending on the Iraq War will surpass the amount spent on the Vietnam War by the end of the year, making Iraq the second most expensive military conflict in American history."

Most expensive wars the U.S. has fought in have cost: [according to a Congressional Research Service study]

* World War Two [WW2]- - $4 trillion.

* Iraq - - $694 billion.

* Vietnam - - $686 billion.

These are inflation adjusted dollars. The actual cost of WW2 is reputed to be about $1 trillion. What was bought with that amount of dollars in 1945 would cost four times the amount today. Same inflated dollars adjustment for Vietnam.

Reasons for this expense in Iraq are to include:

* All-volunteer force.

* Big dependence upon expensive civilian contractors.

* Expensive medical care for wounded and disabled vets.

* Reliance on high techology equipment.

* Unanticipated abuse and degradation on equipment. The talcum powderlike sand of Iraq is destroying vehicles at an alarming rate. If President Obama wants to jump-start the economy, starting up multiple factories to rebuild and manufacture new Humvee vehicles might be the way to go!!

Please keep in mind we will be pay9ing for the Iraq War for a long time to come, even after an end to hostilities. Mostly from paying the interest on borrowed money that was needed to fund the war. IT WAS NOT UNTIL 1998 THAT THE LAST BOND ISSUE FOR THE VIETNAM WAR WAS FINALLY PAID OFF!!

And each and every time we make a telephone connection, we pay a one cent tax. Is a legacy, over ONE HUNDRED [100] YEARS OLD NOW, FROM THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR!! A tax specifically instituted to pay for that war, and NEVER DISCONTINUED!

Sun Tzu from twenty five hundred [2500] years speaks about the debilitating financial cost of war. Can impoverish and weaken a state [country], bringing poverty and misery! Sun was right way back when, and is still right today!

coolbert.