Yes Booger, char is right. I am looking through the REAL costs of a war. It is like the real costs of the government balancing the budget. There are many many costs that are just not considered.

Some to name a few:

R & D. To "fix" a threat like Iraq, and it's special circumstances, we are spending ungodly amounts of money to counter this threat in research and developement of special weapons.

Loss productivity of the soldiers that would undoubtably be spent in the private sector creating goods and services, instead of making money here at home, they are at war. And the 10 people necessary to keep one soldier on the battlefield.

The huge logistic costs which are NOT figured into the cost of the war. They start the figures only when you enter the war zone.

The HUGE financial aid required to rebuild Iraq

The huge financial aid to other countries for bases to operate from.

The wear and tear of equipment that is used, but not destroyed. This cost is NOT figured in to losses.

The CIA costs are NOT figured in, nor the equipment in orbit that cost billions just to track it.

I can name about a 3.6 trillion reasons for more costs than they tell you are being spent. There are so many costs that it is unbelieveable. And none of them are "in the budget"

Sure, you could argue that some of these costs would be incurred anyways, and you will have a point. But with those cascading costs, come upkeep and maintenance costs too.

It would probably end up somewhere in the 10 trillion range.

And all for some non-existant WMDs, and a bunch of lies.

And OK Booger, lets say it is even a 1/2 a trillion. Just how many people could we send to advanced education for that money, how many chances at a PERMANENT alternate energy source for that money in R & D. How much to repair the coast from the terrible hurricanes, how about just helping people rebuild.

point 1 The REAL cost far exceed the figures
Point 2 The money we are spending, we do not have to spend
Point 3 If we are going to spend money we do not have, let us spend it on the USA, you know, the people in the USA.

Allan