Five Years

It has been five years since the Iraq war started. Many Americans took to the streets today protesting the continuation of the war (and some got arrested), but George W. Bush took the day to once again proclaim victory against the enemies of America and Iraq. To George W., the costs of the war have been exaggerated by his opponents and, moreover, whatever the numbers, they have been necessary for victory in the war against terror. Here are some numbers by generally reliable sources:

** The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the cost of war at $600 billion, while Joseph Stiglitz estimates that once post-war costs are included, the Iraq war will have cost somewhere around $3 trillion. (Taken from today's BBC news report: http://news.bb.co.uk/2/hi/americas/730523.stm)

** www.iraqbody count.org estimates civilian deaths to be between 82,249 and 89,760. They use numbers from documented sources. I've seen websites which place the number at over a million--I don't know about how true that is and I'm not sure how they're calculating their numbers.

** The AP reports that close to 4,000 American troops have died. The DoD reports the same.

I'm not sure what 'cost' is necessary but these numbers are very high. It's disturbing that we think collateral damages of over 80,000 civilians is considered okay by the government and the Armed Forces. If we're trying to maintain our values of life, liberty and justice, why aren't we following those self same values?