Crawley reports that the economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates the war in Iraq to have cost the United States three trillion dollars.

“America’s annual aid contribution to the continent of Africa costs as much as ten days fighting in Iraq. Stiglitz estimates the US could end illiteracy in the world for the price of two weeks of fighting in Iraq. To place this in some historical context, the war in Iraq has cost more than the Vietnam War; and has cost the US more per individual soldier than the Second World War.”  

Yes, here’s the “selfish” United States, sacrificing more than three trillion dollars and thereby putting its own economy in jeopardy, because it’s only ever on the lookout for itself.It was for the oil, they say. Then where the hell is it? It was for the economic advantages. Then where are they? It was a personal vendetta to benefit Bush. Then where is the benefit to Bush? The monetary figures by themselves demonstrate that America was not in this war for its own good. It would have been more selfish never to have gone to Iraq in the first place. And the fact that many now regret the decision to go to Iraq does not detract from the fact that there was a consensus of decent intentions and good reasons to go in the first place, based on the information available at the time.Do I think we should bring the troops home? Yes, enough of my tax money has been pushed into the big sinkhole in the Middle East, and that’s not to mention the American lives being lost in the process. But it’s asinine for the same anti-war geniuses who said that the purpose of the war was to line American pockets with cash, now to lament the huge American cost of the war to further the same witless agenda.