let us see what love can do

The Costs Are Many

4,000 US Military Killed(1a)

29,320 US Military wounded – direct hostilities(1b)
62,650 US Military wounded – indirect, accident, disease(1b)
81,174 to 88,585(2a) to 1,185,800(2b) Iraqis killed
2.3 million Iraqi internally displaced persons(3)
2,012,000 to 2,467,000 Iraqi refugees(3)
1,810 Iraqi refugees admitted to US (fiscal year 06-07)(3)

1 trillion dollars for the first 4 years of the war(4)
3 trillion dollars estimated for the long term costs including taking care
of wounded veterans and interest on debt incurred to borrow money
to pay for the war(4)
$720 million per day = $500,000 per minute(4)
More than $4 billion spent in 2007 for recruiting into the military(5)
Other ways to spend $720 million (a day’s cost of the war) (4) :
16,525 people could get health insurance for one year
423,529 children could get health insurance for one year
95,364 kids could have a year in a Head Start program
1,153,846 kids could get free lunches for a year
34,904 people could go to a state college for 4 years
12,478 teachers could be paid for one year
84 new elementary schools could be built
6,482 new homes could be built
1,274,336 homes could have renewable energy for one year

(1a) Department of Defense has officially confirmed 3,992; 8 more remain to be confirmed.
(1b) Department of Defense, 3/1/08 (Note that the DoD has an unusual way of distinguishing between “hostile” and other types of injuries.)
(1a and b from www.icasualties.org on 3/24/08)
(2a) estimate (1/1/08) given at iraqbodycount.org
(2b) estimate (1/1/08) given at justforeignpolicy.org
(3) UN High Commission on Refugees, 11/21/07 (in Quaker Action Winter 2008, published by the American Friends Service Committee)
(4) For basis of estimates and calculations, see: www.afsc.org/cost/facts-and-figures.htm.
See also 2 minute video “One Day in the Iraq War” at www.afsc.org/cost
(5) www.nationalpriorities.org/charts/Spending-on-Military-Recruiting-2.htm includes advertising, maintaining recruiting stations, pay & benefits for more than 22,000 recruiters, and enlistment bonuses.