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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Price of Stupidity

posted by on November 13 at 9:44 AM

The estimated cost of the terrorist action that’s now called 9/11: $500,000

The estimated cost for maintaining the War on Terror: $1,500,000,000,000

The hidden costs ‘raise US war price.’ The US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing nearly double the amount previously thought, according to a report set to be released by Congress.

…The report calculates that the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the average US family of four more than $20,000.


RSS icon Comments

1

Well, at least all that money isn't going toward something wasteful like health care, education or infrastructure. That would be a real shame.

Posted by Levislade | November 13, 2007 9:46 AM
2

Think you've got a couple extra zeros on there, Charles. $1.5 quadrillion dollars? The gross world product (that's global, not just U.S.) is about $43 trillion. Your figure is 30 times the amount of money that exists in the world.

Posted by Superfurry Animal | November 13, 2007 9:49 AM
3

How do you figure 9/11 only cost half a mil? I think you're missing a few zeros there. That won't even by a downtown condo.

Posted by Justy | November 13, 2007 9:52 AM
4

@2 - looks like trillion to me, unless it was already changed.

Posted by Levislade | November 13, 2007 9:55 AM
5

I love how the story about the cost of the war is the headline news at BBC, but not even on the main page of CNN.

Way to report what is important CNN! Way to show us "American" news!

Fucking christ, our media sucks ass.

Posted by Original Monique | November 13, 2007 9:55 AM
6

@2:

I read that figure as $1.5 Trillion, not Quadrillion, which sounds about right.

But @3, I agree $500K doesn't even come close to the cost in property damage - I don't even know how you can put a dollar figure on the lives lost.

Posted by COMTE | November 13, 2007 9:56 AM
7


And don't forget that $1.5 trillion is almost all borrowed money--current national debt over $9 trillion with no end in sight--and at the rate we're going the US federal government is gonna implode like a ragged-out Vegas casino. Not that that's a bad thing anymore.

Posted by Original Andrew | November 13, 2007 9:59 AM
8

$500k was the rough cost for the terrorists to pull it off, I believe he's saying.

Posted by Mr. Poe | November 13, 2007 9:59 AM
9

Oh, thanks. I was just wondering that.

Posted by Amelia | November 13, 2007 10:01 AM
10

I interpreted the $500,000 as the cost it took for the terrorists to carry out 9/11, not what it cost the USA.

Posted by Peter | November 13, 2007 10:01 AM
11

Truly, Bush is beyond a bad president - he is the standard by which all poor performance shall be judged in the future. He represents the absolute zero of competence.

Posted by tsm | November 13, 2007 10:06 AM
12

Can't we all just quit paying fucking taxes? I used to complain that my tax dollars were funding Isreali terrorism, now they're funding global terrorism, paying the salaries of the Blackwater assholes, etc. I'm moving to another country NOW.

Posted by M | November 13, 2007 10:08 AM
13

Yes, M. Quit paying your taxes. Hey let me know how that works out for you.

Posted by Mr. Poe | November 13, 2007 10:12 AM
14

right. I said "all of us" but that'll never happen. Only the big corps. get to avoid paying taxes. There is no mass opposition movement in this country. Ergo, make plans to relocate.

Posted by M | November 13, 2007 10:18 AM
15

Bush II is truly horrible, but the worst preznit of all time has to be James Buchanan, whose support for slavery and indolent idiocy greatly contributed to the start of the Civil War.


Keep in mind that the Democrats and Republicans have flipped political ideologies over the last 150 years and it all makes sense.

Posted by Original Andrew | November 13, 2007 10:24 AM
16

Brilliant plan. It's like a bull fight.

Posted by Lloyd Clydesdale | November 13, 2007 10:28 AM
17

the cost should be offensive because of the actions. or do you believe that the US should be spying on citizens, torturing people, and occupying iraq if it only cost a few million?

but i get it. people are only willing to stop our government when it starts costing us too much, not just because it might be doing something that is, you know, wrong.

Posted by infrequent | November 13, 2007 10:36 AM
18

@ 10 oooooooooh .... now that makes sense.

I guess, it still would be a remarkable comparisson to consider how much money 9/11 itself costed us, regardless of the human lives, family relief, etc. etc. and seeing as they haven't even replaced the building yet, I can imagine that THAT number doesn't even come close.

As far as the cost of human life? It falls on deaf ears at this point, I'm not as much of a humanist as I used to be ... the whole song live and let die perfectly applies.

I will give the whole notion of patriotism some credit, at some point you have to define what your group is, what your turf is and what you are willing to defend. The means at which we have chosen (have had chosen for us) is fucking asinine to the umpteenth degree, and it totally degrades and devalues what patriotism should be and of course United States global policy.

Posted by OR Matt | November 13, 2007 10:50 AM
19

It's not like the $20,000 was borrowed from our kids and grandkids Social Security reserves ...

oh.

wait.

It was.

Time to end this insane War and get real (e.g. recognize that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are not our allies and only focus on Afghanistan and stop the Iran and Iraq sideshows).

Posted by Will in Seattle | November 13, 2007 11:15 AM
20

@2 and 4

Yep, Charles changed it. There was an extra trio of zeros earlier.

Posted by Superfurry Animal | November 13, 2007 11:19 AM
21

IF Saudia Arabia didn't have oil, nobody would care. It would be a bunch of nomads killing each other in the desert and nobody would care. IF Pakastan and Afghanistan weren't prime realistate for a pipeline/refinery from russia ... nobody would care, same scenario, bunch of people killing each other on the other side of the world.

The irony of all this oil foreign policy, is how the hell do we afford any of it? Manufacturing? The US is short on natural resources at this point. We export technology but it sure as hell is not creating jobs for everyone. And if that's all we are going to export, be prepared for the US to truely become a welfare state.

Posted by OR Matt | November 13, 2007 11:24 AM
22

The War on Terror is working about as well as the War on Drugs.

Posted by inkweary | November 13, 2007 11:42 AM
23

The War on Terror isn't going as well as the War on Drive-Bys. And there isn't a War on Drive-Bys.

Posted by Greg | November 13, 2007 11:59 AM
24

Also, Charles: I forgot to say this earlier, in the intense concentration of trying to write something witty, but - right on, man.

Posted by Greg | November 13, 2007 12:14 PM
25

Canada is our largest oil supplier. And the War on Drugs is the biggest method of supplying Republicant contributors that ever existed.

Posted by Will in Seattle | November 13, 2007 1:41 PM
26

Obama is laughing his head off.

First they leverage boxcutters into the destruction of WTC.

Then WE leverage this into bankrupting out country, alienating the entire Moslem world, and getting involved in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, quagmies all.

And guess what?

Al Qaeda is just as able to use the internet and the world banking system and cell phones etc. to plan and carry out an operation in the USA. They have their safe havens in Wajiristan, not that they really need one anyway.

Posted by unPC | November 13, 2007 1:58 PM
27

@26: Obama's laughing? Clinton too?

Posted by DOUG. | November 13, 2007 2:35 PM
28

I think Joe Biden is laughing at how clueless @26 was.

Posted by Will in Seattle | November 13, 2007 2:49 PM
29

@25

So THAT is where we get all our oil. Well there and Venezuala ... right? Because I remember something about the US being the eighth largest producer of oil, yet we only use a fraction of it, the majority of that is export.

It's so god damn confusing I should read a book about it. Oil is not just because it fuels our go go devil machines. Its obviously our plastics, our computers, often times our electricity. OUR MEDICAL DEVICES, our outdoor equipment, our vegan shoe products.

And sadly enough our food. 75% of the worlds nitrogen is now fixiated industrially from .... hydrogen which the majority comes from natural gas ... which isn't as bad.

Posted by OR Matt | November 13, 2007 3:50 PM
30

I guess there is one thing about human nature that boggles my mind. For FRACTIONS of what we spent on the war, we can actually build infrastructure, something into our economy. Something sustaining. How many buildings and factories etc. etc. Yet there is no cost to great to blow something up 6000 miles away. It seems really silly when you think about.

Posted by OR Matt | November 13, 2007 3:53 PM
31

For FRACTIONS of what we spent on the war, we can actually build infrastructure, something into our economy.

For realz.

Posted by voted yes on prop 1 | November 13, 2007 3:57 PM

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