Austerity is a Lie.

[grahamhgreen]

28. The cost of Iraq and Afghanistan may be 7 trillion,

So, yes, I think we must slash the DoD budget.

"Readers of the new book, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict will be surprised to learn just how difficult it was for the authors, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Kennedy School of Government professor Linda Bilmes, to dig up the actual and projected costs of the Iraq War for this thorough piece of accounting. Using “emergency” funds to pay for most of the war, the authors show that the White House has kept even Congress and the Comptroller General from getting a clear idea on the war’s true costs.

Other expenses are simply overlooked, one of the largest of which is the $600 billion going toward current and future health care for veterans. These numbers reveal stark truths: improvements in battlefield medicine have prevented many deaths, but seven soldiers are injured for every one that dies (in WWII, this ratio was 1.6 to one).

Figuring in macroeconomic costs and interest-the war has been funded with much borrowed money-the cost rises to $4.5 trillion; add Afghanistan, and the bill tops $7 trillion. This shocking expose, capped with 18 proposals for reform, is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how the war was financed, as well as what it means for troops on the ground and the nation’s future.

Get the The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict by Linda J. Bilmes, and Joseph E. Stiglitz and read it, it’s amazing." http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/11/23/iraq-the-three-trillion-dollar-war/