Tuesday 25 March 2003

War Costs

The US Congress has been asked to shell out 75 billion dollars for the cost of the Iraq war just for the period up to October 2003. Doesn't that make you feel sick? What an incredible waste of money. Each cruise missle costs £400,000 and I seem to remember hearing they shot 400 of them in just one night. The budget for munitions is 6.5 billion assuming the war lasts 30 days.

Notice the payoffs to other countries. Israel gets 10 billion(!?). Jordan and Egypt get a billion each. But Iraq earns 25 billion in oil revenue so maybe some of that can be used to pay the bills. That's an interesting idea. Invade a wealthy country and then get it to pay for the invasion. Then get contributions from other countries (e.g. Japan and South Korea) in return for construction contracts. Interesting way to make a war pay for itself.

So out of all that, the budget for rebuilding Iraq is only 1.5 billion and humanitarian aid a measly 500 million. Does that really demonstrate care for the Iraqi people?

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