Billions Spent in Iraq, For What?

Billions Spent in Iraq, For What? 

January 25, 2005

The Bush administration is expected to request an additional $80 billion to fund on-going actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.  This latest supplemental brings the total amount spent in these countries to more than $280 billion since 9/11, more than $200 billion in Iraq alone. With daily bombings in Iraq, thousands of new terrorist recruits, and the constant threat of civil war and unrest in the nation, Americans are increasingly skeptical of the Bush administration's strategic failure in Iraq.   

• Iraq is now a hotbed for terrorist activity and the focus of the global jihadist movement.   President Bush and his cohorts assured Americans that the war in Iraq would make us safer.  Hundreds of billions later, the exact opposite has occurred.  Iraq has become the central focus of terrorist actions around the world and the top rallying cry for terrorists seeking to kill Americans.  
  
  
• The war in Iraq has set back America's efforts to fight tyranny and spread freedom.  Freedom starts with making the lives of the average Iraqi better, something we have yet to do.  The failure to achieve genuine security has all but halted reconstruction.  An oil-rich country suffers from gas shortages.  The abuse at Abu Ghraib by American soldiers has led many in the Muslim world to view our actions and intentions with great skepticism.  All of Bush's talk of liberty and freedom rings hollow without significant actions to show those in the Middle East that he means what he says and can deliver on his promises.  
  
  
• Perhaps President Bush should ask his wealthy patrons to sacrifice for the war rather than the underpaid, overburdened soldiers and the already pressed middle class. As the war in Iraq (the one the administration claimed would "pay for itself") now exceeds $200 billion dollars, President Bush amazingly continues to push for permanent extensions of tax cuts for the wealthy and has made the privatization of Social Security—an additional $2 trillion debt load—his chief domestic priority. The numbers don't lie and reveal how hollow the President's claims of fiscal responsibility and deficit reduction really are in light of his policy decisions.

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