Iraq war cost the US $200 billion??

[truebrit71]

According to www.costofwar.com it is significantly less than that. Does anyone know where/how John Kerry/DNC got that number?

The reason I ask is because this could be so easily parlayed into more "fuzzy math" by the rethuglicans...

[htuttle]

1. On that page, they have a link to 'how we figure out the costs'

From that page, you'll see another link to this one, discussing the costs in depth:
http://www.fcnl.org/smith/congress_defense_bud401-04.htm

While some of the funding discussed on that page was originally earmarked by Congress for Afghanistan, don't forget that a huge chunk of it was diverted by the Bush administration to prepare for the invasion in Iraq (and they somehow got away with that...).

[offcenter]

2. Cost of war

When we first went in, congress authorized $79 billion. Then Bush publicly asked for $87 billion more and got it. This summer he got another $25 billion while some army people said he needed more like $50 billion to get through the election.

[Jacobin]

3. Are you British?

I ask that because I have noticed that there is a language difference on numbers. For instance, in the U.S. One Billion = 1,000,000,000.00.

In England, I believe you would call that a thousand million and reserve a billion for a million million, which we would call a trillion.

Or am I all wet?

[truebrit71]

5. Yep..hence the handle "TrueBrit"...

...I have lived Stateside 22+years...and I am using the U.S billion as opposed to the British billion...

[Jacobin]

6. Nevermind, then

"Foiled again"!!!

:-)

[stray cat]

4. http://www.factcheck.org gives a good summary

Kerry is including what has already been spent (about 120 billion) with the money allocated for the coming year. We will certainly spend 200 billion but we haven't yet and Kerry should really say we will spend at least 200 billion or use the 120 billion figure to be correct.

[shraby]

7. AND that is without providing the troops

with proper body armor, armored humvees, a serious shortage of bullets not long ago. If they had spent funds for these necessities, we probably would have walked through even more.
It's unconscionable that money was allocated and not spent on these items, but did pay mercenaries.

[Robin Hood]

8. Ummm, The war ain't over. It's not done costing us.

If anything, it is far from over. I estimate it will run into the trillions.

[DaveofCali]

9. Doesn't the Iraqi occupation cost us $4 billion dollars extra a month?

Doesn't the Iraqi occupation cost us $4 billion dollars (to fund the military there) that is in addition to the appropriated money for Iraq?