One of my students came by my office today to ask if I thought that the economic crisis brewing (or already brewed) in the US at the moment is at all related to the large military expenditures of the Bush years. She noted that the Bush approach to military spending and foreign adventurism seems to be at odds with the vision of the policymakers during the Founding generation we are currently studying in ourt "US and the World" class, and alao at odds with Washington's Farewell Address and even Eisenhower's Farewell Address (which we read last semester). It was a thoughtful question.
It is pretty easy to answer with this Iraq War Cost clock, which basically speaks for itself:
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Iraq War Cost
I was happy to get that clock to work on this blog. I am less happy that this astonishing expenditure has yielded zero in terms of strategic returns for the US except for a military that is overstretched and quite battered (at least according to this interesting survey in Foreign Policy and to this discussion of the enormous cost of carrying for the wounded), a world in which the US reputation is at an all time low, $100/barrel oil, a financial collapse that may have a very low bottom indeed, a massively expanded executive power at home, the public acceptance of immoral and illegal torture as federal policy, collateral damage to allied countries' economies, and a resurgent al Qaeda to boot.
And that is just the short list of negative consequences.
More detail on the $700 billion spent (if you include Afghanistan and force protection as well) can be found in the Congressional Report at this link (with costs as of February 2008)
It is pretty easy to answer with this Iraq War Cost clock, which basically speaks for itself:
###
Iraq War Cost
I was happy to get that clock to work on this blog. I am less happy that this astonishing expenditure has yielded zero in terms of strategic returns for the US except for a military that is overstretched and quite battered (at least according to this interesting survey in Foreign Policy and to this discussion of the enormous cost of carrying for the wounded), a world in which the US reputation is at an all time low, $100/barrel oil, a financial collapse that may have a very low bottom indeed, a massively expanded executive power at home, the public acceptance of immoral and illegal torture as federal policy, collateral damage to allied countries' economies, and a resurgent al Qaeda to boot.
And that is just the short list of negative consequences.
More detail on the $700 billion spent (if you include Afghanistan and force protection as well) can be found in the Congressional Report at this link (with costs as of February 2008)
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