How Much Does Liberating Iraq Really Cost?
As predicted, most critics of the war have turned to the costs, now that the “civil war,” military “quagmire” and “no political progress” memes have become inoperative. Amity Shlaes looks at the claims and the actual costs.
But by the standard method of calculating costs of wars, defense spending as a share of gross domestic product, Iraq’s price is improbably modest.
Back in 1986, the year before Ronald Reagan threw out his “tear down this wall” challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev, defense spending was 6.2 percent of the U.S. economy, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In 1968, the year of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, it was 9.5 percent.
In 2005, 2006, and 2007, defense spending was about 4 percent of GDP — as low as during the early 1990s, when the U.S. was enjoying the “peace dividend” after the Soviet Union’s collapse.
It’s also worth noting, since apparently no one else has, that the last 4 months have seen the lowest Iraqi civilian casualties recorded over any 4-month period (p4), and the same is true for U.S. casualties p(16).
Perhaps that’s why opinions on Iraq are changing.
In the most in-depth picture of the trend, the Pew report says that about half the public (48%) now says the Iraq war effort is going either very well or fairly well. That compares to a more than 2-1 majority who said it was going badly a year ago. Nearly half (47%) say the U.S. should keep its troops in Iraq until the situation there has stabilized — roughly the same as those (49%) who favor bringing troops home as soon as possible. A year ago, 53% favored rapid withdrawal versus 42% who favored keeping the troops in Iraq
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5 comments
It is an interesting statement to note that as a percentage of our national wealth our defense spending is at a pretty low ebb historically, but at the same time, it’s more than most of the other militaries in the world spend combined.
It’s also interesting that even though the economy is doing pretty well, an awful lot of people feel very economically insecure. I sympathize with that view, believe me, even though the rational part of me knows I’m materially blessed in a lot of ways.
The three trillion number seems like the accountant’s equivalent of that ridiculous Lancet study in the last election cycle. If we used that same set of metrics and adjusted for inflation, I suspect that Iraq would look like a training exercise next to most wars.
But even if it were completely accurate I really don’t personally find arguments about the monetary cost of the war very compelling. If you’re going to fight a war, and we’re in one, then you spend as much as you need to do it right. Because losing inevitably costs a whole lot more. In some imaginary world I suppose that would have eliminated world hunger, saved the whales, and bought everyone a new Prius, but in the real world it would’ve been frittered away with little lasting effect.
Bryan Costin’s last blog post..Now exploring the outer planes
The real gripe that Congress has with funding the military is that every dollar spent there is a dollar unavailable for earmarks. ;D
[…] mainstream media has absolutely refused to report on the excellent news coming out of Iraq so Dean’s World reported the great news […]
Does Mr. McCain really can afford to spend 780 Million dollars a day in Iraq for next hundred years? Mr. McCain is really older, fuzzier and more tempestuous version of Mr. Bush. While we spend on so much on foolish political misadventures overseas, United States is becoming a third world country domestically. Our economy is in shambles, dollar has declined so badly has never been before, lost the power and prestige in the world. US is crying out for a wise and prudent domestic and foreign policy. For example US is in infant mortality is 40th in the world, our longevity is 41 in the world, not to mention, education, healthcare, infrastructure, and by all the standards of measurements like it or not United States is quickly becoming a part of the third world. Spending money on the military can save us. All you have to do is to take drive across the border to Canada to witness how badly American standards have declined. US is increasingly becoming more like Mexico than Canada. Mr. McCain’s plan to continue the same ill conceived Bush-Republican policies such to keep the war going in Iraq and make the tax cuts for the rich permanent would guarantee the further decline of American power, prestige and prosperity. We need Hillary Clinton more than ever to be our president and end this Republican nightmare!
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