Illegal Iraq War Costing $6 Billion Per Month

The Iraq war is costing the U.S. taxpayer nearly $6 billion per month. That’s billion with a big fat “B”. That’s a 6 followed by no less than 9 zeros. That’s a LOT of money.

Let’s attempt to put $6 billion into perspective. Assuming a 30 day month, $6 billion is:

  • 200 million (200,000,000) dollars per day
  • Over 8 million (8,333,333) dollars per hour
  • Over 138 thousand (138,000) dollars per minute

Of course these numbers don’t put a dollar figure on human casualties.

But hey, we are spreading freedom and democracy around the world so it’s all good.

Bring’em on

UPDATE: Catch a glimpse of what you get for the money.

UPDATE 2: They all knew it’s an illegal war

posted Mar 9th, 2006 by disinter
  • http://none reader008

    the war could be stopped in a week if citizens stopped spending money or giving taxes in the name of protest. but we’d rather bitch and moan, and keep our nice American Way.

  • john g4lt

    ah yes, the REAL words of Patrick Henry “give me liberty, or give me somebody else to volunteer to die for it”

  • disinter

    reader008,

    Considering that this war is financed with debt, I don’t think that would make much of a difference.

  • Eileen

    How much is Bush making off of this war? I think that number just went up. Maybe we should be Halliburton (Cheney) a call.

  • bac

    Here is an article about financing terrorism.
    http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0308/p04s01-woeu.html

  • http://www.LibertyFilter.com putrimalu

    How much is Bush making off of this war? I think that number just went up. Maybe we should be Halliburton (Cheney) a call.

    I don’t know how it could be about profit. These people are already rich enough where they, their grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc would never have to work again.

  • http://allencountylp.blogspot.com/ Mike Sylvester

    I am the Chairman of The Libertarian Party of Allen County (Fort Wayne, Indiana). I am a military veteran and I spent six years in The United States Navy because I believe in America.

    I certainly think we are overspending in Iraq; just like I think we are overspending on Education, FEMA, The National Endowment for The Arts, Amtrack, and too many wasteful programs to list here.

    I think there is too much complaining going on about the cost of the Iraq “conflict.” Our government is overspending on EVERYTHING. Our troops are deployed in Iraq and we CANNOT just “Cut and run.”

    We need to get more organized and go out and convince the voters that it is time to throw both Republicans and Democrats out of office.

    I am pro-military and proud of it!

    How about you?

    Mike Sylvester

  • Rhampton

    $6 billion a month, is that all? Hell I’m good for 0.001%, maybe 0.002%, of that — if you put a hunting rifle to my face.

  • http://www.tom-hanna.org Tom Hanna

    Does that even begin to compare to the cost of telling foreign investors that we’re okay with ex post facto laws, bills of attainder and illegal uncompensated property takings…as long as the victims are Arab? Probably not. Wait until the UAE and Saudis start dumping dollars and then we can talk about cost. But I note that the fact that Bush was right on that one was a “truth” you couldn’t stomach hammering; in fact this Hammer was Hammering away with Chuck Schumer and the rest of the socialists in Congress.

  • Julian (a Vietnam Vet)

    Mike Sylvester

    Your words just ring hallow on this site. This site is primarily an antiwar site that believes the threat to us is not real. They DO want to cut and run. It is too bad because you are what the libertarian movement needs if it is ever going to be successful.

    This site does more harm to getting libertarians elected than it does good. It turned me off to the Party because my research shows there are just too many of these people everywhere within the libertarian movement. They have become a three issue group, promoting pornography, promoting drugs and engaging in antiwar causes.

    Good luck on your uphill battle.

  • Julian (a Vietnam Vet)

    Mike Sylvester

    I was looking for an alternative to Democrats and Republicans. I believe both parties have failed the people. I was hoping the LP would have the answers. I will keep an open mind if the radicalism displayed within the movement is ever tempered with reason. When that happens, I will reconsider.

  • error

    First off, War is Hell. It’s not something you enter into lightly, and it’s not something you even consider except in the direst of circumstances.

    That said, I probably differ from my colleagues here when I say if there is no other option, then by all means, fight, and fight to win.

    To “cut and run” is logistically impossible, and anyone who suggests it is in desperate need of a reality check. We’re in this mess, and yes, we need to get out of it, but you can’t move 100,000 deployed troops in a day.

    As for porn and drugs, I want to become a member of Congress so I can get a free subscription to Hustler, too…and I hear the drugs are much better quality inside the Capitol.

  • Torfinn

    I don’t think you’d come across a single person here would disagree that if there’s no other choice, then fight and fight to win.

    It’s a simple concept, in essence you’re simply saying that if we disagree with the war in Iraq that we’re cowards or would rather die than fight.

    Everyone knows war is hell, you think it’s hell for the soldiers that are armed to the teeth with a bunch of pro killers on their side moreso than the people oon the ground with no weapons, nobody getting their back, and kids and family to try and protect?

    I don’t have to experience war to know it’s hell. That’s why I’m opposed to it in any other name than defense. Iraq and Afghanistan could only be called defense if you spend all day and night trying to convince yourself they are, the much more obvious reality is a power play and a complex machination of fraud.

    If you can’t see that plainly with the information presented to you, well that means you’re to emotionally involved to see the facts.

  • Torfinn

    I know and hold closer to my heart several veterans than I care to justify to you, and I’ve never once had to somehow justify that my opinions were less valuable than theirs simply because I hadn’t gone into a conflict first hand.

    I’m not making the sacrifice, because I believe with all my heart that it’s a sacrifice made to simply benefit someone else and NOT the American people.

    The Bush family and the Bin Laden family go back for ages, it’s irrefutable fact. In fact, all of the “enemies” that we’re currently at war with just happen to stem from our own breast pocket.

    This seems simple to me, yet all you see Julian is very simple Hegelian principle.

    a:I see on TV and the News that we were attacked and I’m now in danger.

    b:Everyone says these people did it.

    c:They say that if we just let them pass draconian laws and go fight wars on several fronts we will reclaim the safe feelings we felt before we were attacked.

    Take what you’re given, don’t use your mind.

  • Torfinn

    And no Julian, Mike’s words don’t ring hollow.

    Lot’s of us are pro military and proud of it.

    That doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not we support or promote FOREIGN conflicts that our politicians, Mike, the idea of “cutting and running” is simply a logical fallacy.

    We’re not going to do it, under any circumstances unless we hand the whole op over to Mercs, and even then we’ve now got permanent bases in Iraq. We are empircally spreading, all over southeast Asia not contracting. Considering the energy concerns in the region I’d say we’ve built a satisfying platform to continue forward toward Iran, which from what it sounds like on the hill lately is our next big threat.

    Hey maybe even though they were dire enemies Saddam stashed all his WMD’s in Tehran!?

    Get it out of your mind that we’re spreading democracy. We’ve been involved in dozens of major conflicts all over the world since WWII and I don’t see any new places I can think about buying a vacation home.

  • Torfinn

    And war is absolutely hell for those that experience it Michael, but those aren’t the people that choose to go to war.

    Are you suggesting that war is hell for Cheney, Rummy, Bush, or Rove?

    I can’t really see how it affects ANY of them other than we’re relying on their good nature and conscience.

    Not everyone has a good nature or conscience, least of all people who my only gauge of is their publically scripted appearances on television and a foggy haze of facts and lies to disseminate from.

  • Julian (a Vietnam Vet)

    Why not link to ANSWER. Now that is a so called antiwar site with a hidden socialist/anarchist agenda. Check it out.

  • Ian C

    “A hidden socialist/anarchist agenda.”

    WTF? Could someone please explain to me how one can in a rational, factually based sense, lump socialists and anarchists as a single societal group?

    Socialist = government control of societal actions and economic models
    Anarchist = nonexistance of any government.

    Now, yes, according to Occham’s Razor a long-term successful socialist nation is equivalent to a long-term successful anarchist nation. But beyond that…

    Julian, I’m sorry, but every once in a while you really need to find a better way to communicate your ideas.

    Right now you look like a blind, rabid fool. I’m certain you are not. You *might* want to consider a different mechanism to express your ideas.

    Just a thought.

    F.V.C.I.

  • paulie cannoli

    I think there is too much complaining going on about the cost of the Iraq “conflict.” Our government is overspending on EVERYTHING. Our troops are deployed in Iraq and we CANNOT just “Cut and run.”

    paul) What right do you believe your regime has to steal ANY of my money? Where does this right come from? And as for “cut and run” WHY NOT? Finally, what makes them “our” troops?

    I am pro-military and proud of it!

    How about you?

    Paul)I am anti-military and proud of it! Standing armies are a grave danger to liberty. The two can’t coexist, especially in the long run. The Iraq war is based on lies, but you are welcome to continue it so long as you quit staeling our money to do it and doing it in our name.

    If you continue to support any degree of extortion and/or regime military interventionism in foreign affairs you should quit calling yourself a libertarian. If your ilk prevails, you become no better than D and R and not worth one penny or one vote.

  • paulie cannoli

    J) It is too bad because you are what the libertarian movement needs if it is ever going to be successful.

    p) But then its success would be counterproductive.

    J) This site does more harm to getting libertarians elected than it does good.

    P) Getting so-called libertarians elected is not the primary goal. Otherwise why not just spout whatever ideology and party is considered most electable? Getting liberty is the primary goal, by whatever means it is achieved.

    Some libertarians believe electoral politics can sometimes be one of those goals, while others believe it is always by its very nature counterproductive.

    Other, so-called, phony Libertarians support fascist wars of aggression and modified forms of state extortion, among many other evils, in order to get elected. They deserve neither to be elected nor to call themselves libertarians.

  • paulie cannoli

    To “cut and run” is logistically impossible, and anyone who suggests it is in desperate need of a reality check. We’re in this mess, and yes, we need to get out of it, but you can’t move 100,000 deployed troops in a day.

    paul) True, it would probably take several days.

    As for porn and drugs, I want to become a member of Congress so I can get a free subscription to Hustler, too…and I hear the drugs are much better quality inside the Capitol.

    paul) These days there is much better free porn than Hustler all over the web. The drugs thing is true; coke we supplied to several Congressional staff in the ’80s was heat-tested at 90% pure, same as salt-crystallized pharmaceutical grade.

    Over 30 members of USSA reichstag were known to buy by the kilo at that time. This does not include what other members may have been buying elsewhere, unbeknownst to us.

    Uh, I mean Coca Cola. By the gallon. There, that fixes it…

  • paulie cannoli

    WTF? Could someone please explain to me how one can in a rational, factually based sense, lump socialists and anarchists as a single societal group?

    Socialist = government control of societal actions and economic models
    Anarchist = nonexistance of any government.

    paul) This definition of socialism is incomplete. Voluntary socialists believe in voluntary group control of resources; of course you can call that voluntary government (rather than forcible government or regime), but it is compatible with anarchism. There are many anarcho-socialists. ANSWER is not among them; they are a front for a group with ties to the fascist North Korean regime.

    Of course this does nothing to justify the fascist USSA regime or their wars of aggression, past, present and future. The fact that some supporters of OTHER fascist regimes oppose the war for their own reasons does nothing to justify the war at all.

  • Julian (a Vietnam Vet)

    Paulie Cannoli

    Are you male or female? You must be female because you think you know everything and what is good for everybody. You also ramble and don’t know when to quit when you are ahead, all traits of female.

  • disinter

    Typical response from someone that has lost the argument: resort to personal attacks.

    Paulie you FEMALE you!!

  • paulie cannoli

    Julie,

    Are you male or female?

    Sorry, old man, you still can’t suck my cock. But yes, I have one. Not that it should make a difference here. We are discussing ideas; if you need a date, look elsewhere.

    You must be female because you think you know everything and what is good for everybody. You also ramble and don’t know when to quit when you are ahead, all traits of female. psychoanalysis. Actually I don’t think or claim that I know everything or what is good for everybody or anything of the sort.

    And finally, thanks for admitting I’m ahead.