Iraq Unseating Vietnam as Most Expensive U.S. War-Report
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WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug 31 (OneWorld) - It costs the United States more per month to prosecute its war in Iraq than it did to fight in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, according to a report released Wednesday.
Current military operations in Iraq cost about $5.6 billion per month or almost $186 million per day, according to the report from antiwar research and advocacy groups Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy in Focus. ''By comparison, the average cost of U.S. operations in Vietnam over the eight-year war was $5.1 billion per month, adjusting for inflation,'' it said. The report, ''The Iraq Quagmire,'' comes as public support for the war wanes, as politicians and pundits increasingly draw parallels between the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq and the Vietnam War, and as peace groups gird for Sep. 24 demonstrations in Washington, D.C. Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the cost of continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at current levels would nearly double the projected federal budget deficit over the next ten years. By then, the Iraq War would have come to cost more than $700 billion, unseating the Vietnam War, which cost $600 million in current dollars, as America's most expensive military adventure, according to the report. It urged the administration of President George W. Bush to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. ''Iraq policy cannot be seen as a partisan issue. The costs to our country have been far too great,'' said report co-author Erik Leaver. ''No part of our nation remains untouched by this war. The military, the economy, social programs, and most important, our families and communities have all suffered because of this war.'' Some 1,866 U.S. military personnel were killed between the start of war on Mar. 19 2003 and Aug. 22 2005, the report said, bringing the total for coalition forces killed to 2,060. More than 14,065 U.S. troops have been wounded, 13,523 or 96 percent of them since President George W. Bush declared the end of ''major combat'' on May 1 2003. Since then, 255 civilian contractors have been killed, 91 of them identified as Americans, the report added. Congress has approved four spending bills for Iraq with funds totaling $204.4 billion and is expected to OK another $45.3 billion in coming weeks. ''Broken down per person in the United States, the cost so far is $727, making the Iraq War the most expensive military effort in the last 60 years,'' the report said. The money would have been better spent on providing health insurance to the 46,000,000-plus Americans lacking coverage or on a raft of education or housing programs, the report said. On the Iraqi side of the ledger, the report said that as of Aug. 22, between 23,589 and 26,705 civilians had been killed as a direct result of the U.S. invasion and ensuing occupation. Some estimates of civilian injuries range as high as 120,000. Some 65 Iraqi police and security personnel died per month through last December but this year the figure has averaged 155 per month and reached a new high of 304 in July. ''This war has brought nothing but death and destruction to Iraq,'' said report co-author Phyllis Bennis. ''Bringing the troops home is a first step to ending the war.'' Other steps recommended in the report included relinquishing U.S. control over Iraq's oil and downsizing the U.S. embassy in Baghdad to ''normal'' size and authority to make clear Washington's intention to allow Iraqis to decide their own affairs. This, the report argued, would rob the Iraqi resistance of its main enemy and recruiting gimmick: U.S. occupation. It further urged that competition for reconstruction contracts be opened to local and other firms. Money misspent or unaccounted for under no-bid contracts awarded to U.S. firms but paid for with Iraqi oil revenues also should be returned to Iraq's coffers. ''No one can say with certainty what will happen when U.S. troops leave,'' the report conceded. ''But if the administration continues to 'Stay the Course,' U.S. troops will continue to die and they will continue to kill. Iraq's reconstruction will remain stalled and the country's overall situation will remain dire.'' |
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