Sunday Roundup

This week, the Pentagon marked the official end to the war in Iraq with a brief ceremony in a secure part of the Baghdad airport -- helicopters hovering protectively overhead. Although Defense Secretary Leon Panetta later declared that the cost paid by America was "worth it," a look at the price tag offers a more sobering assessment: 4,487 U.S. military personnel killed, over 2,000 U.S. government contractors killed, over 40,000 American troops wounded, over 100,000 Iraqis killed, at least 2 million Iraqis displaced from their homes, and a final tab that could ultimately reach $4 trillion doled out by U.S. taxpayers (a far cry from the $50 billion to $80 billion the Defense Department originally predicted it would cost). And beyond the cost in lives and treasure are the less quantifiable costs we'll be paying for years to come, including the strengthening of Iran and the weakening of America's moral standing in the world.

 

 

 

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Comments

[Derek J Sowa]

03:47 PM on 12/25/2011

It's a very sad day when people think the price of the war in Iraq was 'Worth it'... Try to tell that to the ones who lost their sons, daughters, husbands, wives and childeren in a war with no real purpose and leaving the American tax payers to pick up the tab. I would love to see Bush brought to justice as a war criminal but we all know that will never happen!

[Jeanine Galvan]

12:12 AM on 12/20/2011

Leon Panetta called it "worth it," Leon is getting PAID to be a war monger. War is an economy, invest your sons and daughters while they laugh all the way to the bank. You can bet if there were only human rights to fight about that would never happen as with Tibet. There is no way to make profit in Tibet or any other small country needing assistance with democracy. In the mid-east there is OIL, in Africa and Peru there are minerals. Our involvement in wars is directly linked to what profits there are to be made on the lives of our soldiers. They pay the price of greed with their ill-fated patriotism.
JUST SAY NO!
Peace

[EHenry]

11:24 PM on 12/21/2011

Jeanine - it is worth it to read your comment!

[Infiniti]

11:42 PM on 12/18/2011

Republicans don’t mind spending our nation’s treasure or shedding our blood as long it’s not their own.

Republican’s endless bravado and arrogance is only matched by their hypocrisy and failure.

Their platform is based on smaller government, less regulation, personal choice, and family values, yet over the last 10 years, our deficits have doubled, we’re in the worse recession since the great Depression, abortion- marriage-marijuana use are derisive wedge issues and the GOP’s current front runner has committed adultery and made millions off the government his party rails against.

Wow, no wonder our lives are screwed up so badly and our nation is heading off a cliff.

[wyb]

10:43 PM on 12/18/2011

You have the Republicans to thank for the invasion ouf Iraq, the insuing civil war there, and later in the US.

[Diablo Canyon]

10:08 PM on 12/18/2011

On top of all that we still did not get the OIL.

[danniek37]

10:03 PM on 12/18/2011

Gee whiz folks, I can almost smell the next newer and bigger war looming just ahead! Staged by the politicians who aggrandize themselves as patriots while making deals for self enrichment. In reality, I honestly think they could care less about our young military forces, many still "wet behind the ears." It simply breaks my heart as a parent/grandparent/veteran to know the forthcoming hardships these heroes face,all because of power plays "up on the hill."

[Joe Goforth]

09:58 PM on 12/18/2011

A tragic waste of American life and a terrible waste of our financial resources. I am a Vietnam era veteran and I have had nightmares for most of my life where I dream I'm still in the Army and I'm facing a stone face Army clerk with a handful of papers insisting that my enlistment contract is over but I can't get out. I wake in a cold sweat because I know that that my brothers and sisters are living that dream over and over again. They have been denied their freedom from the war that their government has started and never ended. This next year I hope and pray that Americans will vote for those who have been given this horrible fate and elect Ron Paul. I know that our troops support him can you?

[EHenry]

11:28 PM on 12/21/2011

I went to USNOCS in Sept 64, so i hear you, but wait till you find out about some other things about Paul. I agree with him about the "wars," but not about his views that are somewhat less than caring about people and sharing, or providing social services and benefits for those who can not do it. Let anyone without health ins pay the penalty for not having it - that's Paul.

[Joe Goforth]

07:44 PM on 12/22/2011

Maybe so but it won't be the federal government helpign anyone after their done with things.

[fjm]

09:14 PM on 12/18/2011

The oil guys won the war at no cost to them and they love Dick and George

[tonester64]

09:05 PM on 12/18/2011

It's nuts that our men and women haven't touched our soil yet and those vying for the presidency, except for Ron Paul, are seriously suggesting Iran is our next foreign objective. After all that's happened. The gall is utterly stunning.

[Liz Cepak Genschow]

08:50 PM on 12/18/2011

$4 trillion could have done so much for this country...i am aghast....now we are broke....what now?

[MiamiMama]

09:25 PM on 12/18/2011

The price was the loss of our country's wealth and standard of living in addition to everything listed in this story. Will we ever be the same?

[Dave Dave]

08:39 PM on 12/18/2011

"There has been a good deal of comment—some of it quite outlandish—about what our postwar requirements might be in Iraq. Some of the higher end predictions we have been hearing recently, such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq, are wildly off the mark. It is hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army—hard to imagine." Paul Wolfowitz about Eric Shinseki's estimates of needed troop levels --- House Budget Committee March 27, 2003

[Dave Dave]

08:34 PM on 12/18/2011

Days before the US invasion of Iraq, Tom Ridge, the Homeland Security Secretary went on national TV and told everyone to buy duct-tape, sheet plastic and 5 gallon of water. Just curious about what I am supposed to do with it, Tom?

[G R]

08:21 PM on 12/18/2011

GW Bush left office with the highest disapproval rating of any American president, a large part of the reason being his involvement of our military in the middle east. The American public was largely opposed to the war in Iraq. Ironic now that many blame Obama for our exit, which was simply an agreement worked out by the previous administration and the Iraqi government with an exit date of American forces of December 31, 2011.
I fail to understand how following through on an agreement with the Iraqi government constitutes a 'moral failure' on the part of America. It's like saying America is morally responsible for the failure of democracy in those parts of the world where we tried to install our political and cultural values without success. Not all of the world shares our values nor wishes to be a democratic society. It is not a moral failure on the part of America when other nations choose or are forced to choose a different path.

[CharlesD]

10:42 PM on 12/18/2011

The war in Iraq was to get control of the oil. Democracy had nothing to do with it. The republican politicians wanted the troops kept there to protect the oil. President Obama didn't listen to them.

[Terri Skau]

07:51 PM on 12/18/2011

I'm sorry but it cost more than anyone can put a price tag on..

[bobWal]

07:44 PM on 12/18/2011

In this new age of instant news and communication may these figures become a reminder of the true cost of War. To see the thousands killed and tens of thousands maimed for life and the terror and shock it brings to their families.
Any more invasion forays by this nation should include full and honest disclosure. The people wanting to invade should be forced to tour Arlington Cemetary. Then spend a week or two living with our maimed and crippled soldiers. Then make sure those hot to trot for war have every available male and female in their families be enlisted in the US Military.

[tonester64]

09:10 PM on 12/18/2011

Seriously, we should do like our friends these Rep. like to so much about: enact conscription when 18 years old, female/male must enlist and serve a minimum of two years on home fronts where the action is. Rich, poor, race unimportant, everyone. Maybe then we'll think differently about using people for other's selfish gain in the name of honor, country, and pride.

[CharlesD]

10:45 PM on 12/18/2011

"Must enlist," is an oxymoron!