The true cost of Iraqi war

March 16, 2006

By JOSEPH GAINZA

These are not the words of a pacifist or a liberal or someone who hates American freedom, as the president might say. They are words of Lt. Gen. William E. Odom (Ret.) who was the Army's senior intelligence officer and the director of the National Security Agency under President Ronald Reagan. Now at Yale, he still thinks strategically about U.S. policy and continues to serve his country as a critic of a war he sees serving the interests of the Iranian government, Osama bin Laden, and other extremists in the Middle East while it undermines America's strategic position in the world. He says precondition to progress

Aiming at those who call for staying in Iraq longer make the consequences of withdrawal more terrible and make it harder to find an alternative strategy for achieving regional stability.

General Odom's call for immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq is part of a growing chorus within the U.S. establishment. Democratic Congressman Jack Murtha, a highly decorated Marine war veteran, has stated that the war is hopeless and the U.S. forces should be withdrawn. Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel has asserted that by no measure can it be said that the U.S. is winning the war; Republican Congressman Walter Jones has introduced a House resolution calling on President Bush to begin a withdrawal.

But there are others we should especially be listening to, the U.S. troops stationed in Iraq. The Army Times reports on the results of a poll conducted by the reputable pollster Zogby. Zogby used civilian surveyors to randomly select troops for face-to-face interviews at four large U.S. bases in Iraq. According to the Army Times country within six months, and three out of four think they should pull out within a year.personnel interviewed 21 percent thought that a withdrawal should happen within a year, 22 percent said withdrawal should be within six months, and nearly one third of the troops, 29 percent, said that the troops should withdraw immediately.

There are more compelling reasons for President Bush to bring home all U.S. troops as soon as logistically possible in a way which covers their back. As of March 10 the Pentagon has acknowledged the deaths of 2,306 soldiers and Marines in Iraq, 21 with ties to Vermont, with over 16,000 wounded. And while the U.S. military does not count Iraqi deaths, estimates from reputable sources range as high as 100,000 since the invasion.

The financial costs are staggering. Based on congressional appropriations to date, the National Priorities Projects (NPP) calculates that over $237 billion have been spent on the war, with President Bush asking for $72 billion more. For Vermont that amounts to nearly $400 million. Bringing it home, the NPP estimates that the cost of the war to Rutland County is $37 million dollars thus far. This is a sum that could provide 1,813 college scholarships or 336 additional housing units for county residents.

Taking a wider view, Noble Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard's Linda Bilmes factored in the government-assigned Iraqi lives. They included the cost of health care for wounded Iraq war veterans, increased recruitment spending by a Pentagon confronted with fewer enlistees, and opportunity costs for more productive public investments (such as housing and college scholarships). Using the Congressional Budget Office predictions for troop deployment, Stiglitz and Bilmes factor in the possibilities of complete U.S. troop withdrawal by 2010 to 2015. They also consider how the war has hurt the economy by increasing global and domestic insecurity while contributing to a rise in oil prices. They put the real financial cost of the Iraq war at between $1 trillion and $2.2 trillion.

It is time for an alerted citizenry to take action, to exercise our sovereign right and demand of our elected representatives that they join their voices with ours to end this war and bring our troops home now. People are gathering in Rutland on March 18 to do precisely that. To those who ask out?

 

Joseph Gainza is the Vermont field secretary of the American Friends Service Committee in Montpelier.