Iraq War Will Cost More than World War II Works out to nearly $3,000 a second

[akfools]

Iraq War Will Cost More than World War II
October 28th, 2011

Iraq war, now winding down with US troop exit by December, has cost more than $800 billion so far. But ongoing medical treatment, replacement vehicles, etc., will push costs to $4 trillion or more.

Anyone curious about the cost of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan can look it up on costofwar.com, up to the latest fraction of a second. Last weekend, the Iraq war had cost more than $800 billion since 2001; the Afghan war, $467 billion plus.

For the 8-1/2-year conflict in Iraq alone, that works out to nearly $3,000 a second.

So President Obama’s announcement that all US troops will be out of Iraq by year end should mean some drop in ongoing military spending. But the budget relief probably won’t be as much as you might expect.

Tragically, beside the financial cost, there is the human toll. The war in Iraq has resulted in some 4,480 US troops killed and more than 32,000 wounded. (The Iraqis have suffered far more fatalities, about 654,965, according to the British medical journal The Lancet.) Thus, ongoing medical and disability claims and treatment of US veterans will boost the costs of the Iraq war even more.

Throw in the replacement of vehicles, weapons, equipment, etc., and the eventual tab for the United States could reach $4 trillion to $6 trillion, according to University of Columbia economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University budget expert Linda Bilmes.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/new-economy/2011/1025/Iraq-war-will-cost-more-than-World-War-II

[Christian40]

Iraqi government fails to offer any meaningful resistance

"When Barack Obama issued the order to abandon Iraq after 10 years of fighting there, he left the job largely unfinished. The Iraqi government was not left with the tools they needed to defend themselves against a real foe, as was evidence in the lightning-swift collapse of the cities of Mosul and Tikrit over the last 72 hours.

The UK Independent reports that Sunni insurgents advancing on Baghdad after taking Mosul have captured the city of Tikrit, the home town of Saddam Hussein, as government forces disintegrate and fail to offer resistance. Iraqi soldiers and police are reported to have discarded their uniforms, changed into civilian clothes and fled after firing only a few shots.

Iraqi officials have told The Independent they do have “an anti-terrorism force capable of resisting Isis and recapturing Mosul, but they are few in number.” The speed of the collapse of the regular security forces, about 900,000, will also make it difficult to stage a counter-attack before more cities are lost.

The offensive led by the fundamentalist Islamist group Isis appears to be turning into a general uprising by Iraq’s Sunni Arab community that lost power when Iraq was invaded by the US and its allies in 2003. Militants from Isis have taken the refinery town of Baiji on the Tigris, which is also the site of a power station supplying Baghdad. Some 250 guards protecting the refinery withdrew after militant fighters asked local sheikhs by mobile phone to tell them to pull out or face a fight to the death.

In Mosul, Isis has been seeking to reassure the local population by knocking on doors to tell people they would not be harmed and asking government employees to return to work. Many of those who fled towards Kurdistan when the city fell have returned as the Kurds would not allow them to enter Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) territory."

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=22585

[Mark]

Washington Watches As Iraq Speeds Toward Disaster...
http://news.yahoo.com/u-watches-iraq-speeds-toward-094500826.html;_ylt=AwrBEiJOiJhT3VgA4I3QtDMD

'Mass beheadings' by al-Qaeda forces in Mosul and Tikrit...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/10892299/Iraq-crisis-al-Qaeda-forces-seize-Mosul-and-Tikrit-live.html

PM Asks USA for Strikes...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/iraq-asked-us-for-airstrikes-on-militants-officials-say.html

Secret Request Rebuffed...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/iraq-asked-us-for-airstrikes-on-militants-officials-say.html

Governemt on brink of collapse...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2654861/Escape-Mosul-150-000-Iraqis-overnight-refugees-flee-terror-al-Qaeda-splinter-group-taken-countrys-second-biggest-city.html

Refugees flee tide of terror...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/10893814/Iraq-refugees-scarred-and-desparate-the-families-fleeing-the-tide-of-terror.html

Turkey calls for emergency NATO meeting...
http://news.yahoo.com/turkey-calls-emergency-nato-meeting-iraq-turkish-official-172924625.html

Militants Sweeping Toward Baghdad...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/iraq.html?hp&_r=0

Embassy Prepares for Possible Evacuation...
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/06/11/u-s-embassy-prepares-for-possible-evacuation-as-militants-take-control-in-iraq/

[Psalm 51:17]

Yeah, I remember when the Apostate Church was waving their pom-poms to get this war started 11 years ago.

[Mark]

Iraq crisis: Baghdad prepares for the worst as Islamist militants vow to capture the capital

Iraq is breaking up. The Kurds have taken the northern oil city of Kirkuk that they have long claimed as their capital. Sunni fundamentalist fighters vow to capture Baghdad and the Shia holy cities further south.

Government rule over the Sunni Arab heartlands of north and central Iraq is evaporating as its 900,000-strong army disintegrates. Government aircraft have fired missiles at insurgent targets in Mosul, captured by Isis on Monday, but the Iraqi army has otherwise shown no sign of launching a counter-attack.

The nine-year Shia dominance over Iraq, established after the US, Britain and other allies overthrew Saddam Hussein, may be coming to an end. The Shia may continue to hold the capital and the Shia-majority provinces further south, but they will have great difficulty in re-establishing their authority over Sunni provinces from which their army has fled.

rest: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-crisis-islamist-militants-warn-battle-will-rage-after-seizing-mosul-and-tikrit-9530899.html

[Mark]

Biden Once Called Iraq One of Obama's 'Great Achievements'
 



As Iraq falls apart, it's worth remembering Vice President Joe Biden hailing that country as one of President Obama's "great achievements" in a 2010 interview with then CNN host Larry King:

"I am very optimistic about -- about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You're going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You're going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government," said Biden.

"I spent -- I've been there 17 times now. I go about every two months -- three months. I know every one of the major players in all of the segments of that society. It's impressed me. I've been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/biden-once-called-iraq-one-obamas-great-achievments_794909.html

[Psalm 51:17]

http://online.wsj.com/articles/sunni-extremists-in-iraq-occupy-saddams-chemical-weapons-facility-1403190600
Sunni Extremists in Iraq Occupy Hussein's Chemical Weapons Facility
Officials Don't Believe the Militants Will Be Able to Create a Functional Weapon From the Material

6/19/14