The Cost of War

Illustration by Edward Sorel/Vanity Fair

In his blog at Atlantic Monthly, Matt Yglesias shows how Bush/McCain and their Ship of Fools created a war strategy that crippled the US economy by dragging us into "quagmires abroad."

Good column from Bob Herbert on Iraq's hefty price tag and, of course, there's Stiglitz's book as well. If you look at something like the economic problems in Ohio right now and consider how much better that situation would look had that kind of money been invested in productive infrastructure in the US, it's pretty infuriating. Spent directly, that money would have meant jobs. But spent on something more useful than a fruitless occupation of Iraq, it would have laid the groundwork for continued prosperity. Now at best it's down the drain.

This reminds me of something John Brennan, formerly of the CIA then director of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center and then the National Counterterrorism Center until retiring in 2005, said on Sunday, namely that in contrast to John McCain, Barack Obama "understands the direct correlation between tremendous expenditures of blood and treasury in Iraq and the US economy." Brennan points out that "al-Qaeda strategy has been to bleed the US into bankruptcy" and thus to do as McCain proposes and "continue with the same approach will have severe consequences for U.S. national security." Obviously this came out in the midst of a primary campaign, but it's hardly an Obama-specific point; rather it's one anti-war candidates of any stripe can (and should) make.

Few people seem to appreciate it, but it's quite literally true that al-Qaeda's strategy is to cripple the U.S. economy by dragging us into quagmires abroad. Osama bin Laden himself has said this, and it's the only strategy that makes sense. A smallish number of people with no base of resources can't possibly defeat us unless we shoot ourselves in the foot repeatedly as Bush and McCain propose.

For more on the $3 Trillion War, check out the Joseph Stiglitz article in Vanity Fair.

Bush Legacy

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The Frankfurt Stock Exchange's DAX index plummeted 7.2 percent, its steepest one-day decline since Sept. 11, 2001. Fears that the United States might be in a recession sent markets from Germany to India into a tailspin.

Let's see what happens tomorrow when the US markets open. Given the Bush track record, I am not confident.

Bush Economic Records

Recently Bush has been claiming that "our economy since last summer has been growing at the fastest rate in 20 years." Mark Weisbrot at the Center for Economic and Policy Research takes a deeper look at the Bush record on the economy here. You won't be surprised by Bush's use of carefully selected numbers and time periods. Unfortunately, Bush is still likely to be the "first president since the Great Depression to preside over a net loss of jobs for the country." And of course, the actual Gold Medals that Bush has won are for the budget deficit, the fall in "real wages - adjusted for inflation" and Bush policies designed to divide the country by increasing the gap between rich and poor. And remember what republican Peter Peterson says - "tax cuts today are tax increases for out children."