No one quite knows or will probably ever know the exact financial cost of Iraq and Afghanistan . . . Some estimates put it at $1 trillion, some $2 trillion. --Peggy Noonan, infra
All in all, it was an object lesson in the dangers of groupthink, a demonstration of how important it is to listen to skeptical voices and separate reporting from advocacy. But as I said, it’s a lesson that doesn’t seem to have been learned. --Paul Krugman, infra
On the 10th anniversary of the Iraq war, it is worth reflecting on how a nation could throw away a trillion dollars or more on a needless war--
Noonan: Can the Republican Party Recover From Iraq? - WSJ.com: "Mr. Powell told the U.N. Saddam Hussein must be stopped and asserted that Iraq had developed and was developing weapons of mass destruction. That turned out not to be true."
Who's responsible for this gigantic, colossal, miscalculation? The US "intelligence community" (what an oxymoron) probably ranks up there, as well as Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, and of course the rest of the Washington political establishment and its "establishment media" as Paul Krugman has pointed out. Let's face it--government, with support from mainstream media, made the mistake; government wasted the resources; and everybody in Washington, Republican and Democrat (with just a few exceptions) is guilty of the malfeasance and negligence which led to this tragedy and waste.
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