Big Ideas, Cheap Plans, and the High Costs of Being "Liberators"

Almost 5 years ago, at the outset of the US waged war in Iraq when Dick Cheney was still arguing that US troops would be greeted as "liberators," some policy wonks and elected officials made the case that the cost would run about $50 billion. That almost sounds like a bad joke. But wait, it gets even funnier.

Today, some estimate that the war is costing $300 million per day of occupation, which adds up to a couple of billion dollars per week and several hundred billions dollars per year. Thus far, the total war cost has been about $1.2 trillion.

A New York Times article entitled, "What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy," tries to put this almost unfathomable amount of money into perspective. They write:

The way to come to grips with $1.2 trillion is to forget about the number itself and think instead about what you could buy with the money. When you do that, a trillion stops sounding anything like millions or billions.

For starters, $1.2 trillion would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign — a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children’s lives.

Combined, the cost of running those programs for a decade wouldn’t use up even half our money pot. So we could then turn to poverty and education, starting with universal preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old child across the country. The city of New Orleans could also receive a huge increase in reconstruction funds.

The final big chunk of the money could go to national security. The recommendations of the 9/11 Commission that have not been put in place — better baggage and cargo screening, stronger measures against nuclear proliferation — could be enacted. Financing for the war in Afghanistan could be increased to beat back the Taliban’s recent gains, and a peacekeeping force could put a stop to the genocide in Darfur.