The Cost of War

Anyone who quotes the cost of the Iraq war in terms of current dollars since its inception is revealing a lack of respect for objective truth. The same deception applies to the casualties. Whether we oppose or support the Iraq effort we should at least use meaningful measures. The US spending on national defense declined from the late 80s to 2000 as the nation spent the "peace dividend" following the cold war. Defense spending as an annual percent of GDP—which is the only objective way to state it—rose to about 6% of GDP in the 80s and declined to 3% by 2000. The current defense budget, including the supplementals for the Iraq and Afghan war, is about 4.5% of GDP which is similar to the 4.4% of Clinton's first year in office. So the hubris of those who talk about the disaster of the trillion dollar war can be safely ignored.

No one wants to belittle the casualties of our troops but we still need to speak rationally and have some perspective. About the same number of Americans have died by violence in Detroit and Baltimore since 2003 as have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. It seems that those who write the news stories are relatively unconcerned when Blacks and Hispanics are killing each other.