I was working on my computer and overheard the name of a website that totals the cost of the war in Iraq.

Without the 2 billion dollars Michigan has contributed toward the war we would have no defict, in fact we'd probably have gained money from it.

http://costofwar.com/
As of now the total is approximately $99,912,000,000 (written in standard notation to emphasize the outrageousness of it).

holy ...thats a lot of cash. Seriously i do not understand war, from any viewpoint.

$100,034,000,000 now...

Same here, Deftone. I can't phantom how or why the total is this high.

so are they gonna make Iraq pay this amount or something?

no offence to all you patriot americans in here, and this is no attack on the American people, but I'm sure the rest of the world agrees the benefits conquering Iraq will reap America (and a certain other place) will be much greater than the cost.

well I sure havent seen gas prices going down since... so... I highly doubt it.

Gas prices bounce around so randomly here I don't know what's going on. It was $1.49 a week ago, $1.59 two days ago, now it's $1.53.

But, off topic....

Where does the government get the money??? And when they try to pay off the debt, who do they pay?

Well actualy you used to buy these things called War Bonds and the war was in a way funded by americans... They had to pay these bonds back with interest (good rate too) and thats how they used to fund the wars now they just raise taxes and make you pay..... The war in Iraq I seen an estimate that every American will have to pay something like 1200$ in taxes to cover the cost of ammo gas and all that. I personaly dont think even capturing Sadam was worth the money they will just replace him with some nut 10 years from now anyway. The US just needs to invest more money into developing ICBM based EMP bombs would be cheaper then invasion....

it is very simple. Who is going to pay for all this. Iraq of course, not in straight cash, but in the eventuality that America will obviously control it and use up all its resources for personal profit will more likely make up for the profit in no time.

i think war is sad. not only does it cost way to much but the poor people who have to go there

$100,190,000,000 now. Geez... If I had a penny for every dime they spent, I'd still be rich.

lol. u people. thinkin bout the $$ and not the guys who died lol anyways thats alot of money. i dont get why bush is so happy bout sadam he didnt put air planes into our buildings!!

Everything revolves around money. Who cares about anything else? That's the way it all runs.

Bleh...

I think its a waist and the govt. is rigged anyway. doesn’t matter if we vote nothing matters they control everything its stupid the us sucks! It’s pointless...we just kill a lot of ppl and lose a lot of ppl. It’s dumb...we have so many starving homeless ppl here why waist money on them. We’ll just go rebuild them and spend more anyways. It’s ridiculous!

Couldn't agree more. In blunt terms, f*** war help the homeless and hungry.

im not so much pissed at the government as i am of the people that condone this type of behavior. Sure many might be against it, but when the toll has to come down, everyone goes with the flow. It really pisses me off, you have rights, freedom of speech...use em! *besides on this forum*

i agree w/ that also!

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.

The individual who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, whose only concern is for his own personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

I agree with that statement, you people need to learn to distinguish unjust war from just war...

Statments like **** war help the poorless is what pisses me off, if everyone thought like this Hitler would now be controlling the world.

helping the Poor is absolutely crucial, I believe in charity however that does not mean we should never fight for our own freedom and beliefs... however, I doubt the above arguement works for America's war on Terror

I was making reference to the current war on "terror" seeing as this has been the only war I've seen up to this point. I'm not only concerned about myself, in fact I consider myself very unimportant and would rather help someone else than myself any day, part of which comes from my utter hatred toward braggarts and egotists.

I generally think war is a catastrophic thing and there are other more civil ways of doing something but seeing as "Operation Iraq Freedom" is the only war I've been through so far I say this (what you're commenting on, Rezza). Our soilders are going over there thinking it's the patriotic thing to do and getting killed everyday. Everytime I hear the news they are talking about it; it just shouldn't be, there's no cause that I can think of. I'm not condemning the fact that we got rid of Saddam, that's great, but another dictator will soon be in power, I'm sure of it. Overall we're causing more havoc than we are preventing.

i totally agree with phpfanatic!

sure, War on terror is a load of crap being fed to the world to try to justify the recent violence being caused in Iraq and Afghanistan.

but just because the war on terror is unjustified that doesn't mean we should rule out War completely.

war should bee seen as a form of protection, you need war in order to protect your beliefs, freedom, country, people.

"The individual who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, whose only concern is for his own personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

that sentence I mentioned earlier sums it up perfectly for me, War is ugly and should be avoided, when you are being attacked, you should defend yourself.

there is no excuse for transgression however

Yes, that's the message I'm trying to convey, Avoid war at all costs, if all else fails fall back to war.

I'm sure you can see the difference between that statement and "**** war, "

I think theres somtihng you missunderstood Rezza.

I think you confused, logic for war with moral for war. I think PHP was more reffering to the moral issue that its just wrong to engage in war. As for the logical bit, yeah self defense, if you have no choice but to defend yourself. But few wars are fought that way, with true honest intentions from either side.

You're right, Deftone, I was more referencing the moral issue. It's clear Rezza can see both standpoints too.

Bleh, war just sux period. A pointless in humane load of ****.

agreed

Anyone who thinks going off to fight is going to be a "happy happy joy joy" time is a complete moron! Argh! they just darn blew off my arm... oh well, I'm a patriot, yeeha.

lol...war will always be idolized by the stupid, hated by the wise and feared by the weak.

Ahypotheticalhigherpower to that, Deftone. Of course there are always those exceptions but overall I'd have to agree. You can still be very intelligent and idealize war but then I'd say you have a very high IQ and a low "EQ".

you people keep failing to see my point. I for one would gladly go to war for the right reasons, if one is attacked, they should fight back period.

go and read that sentence I posted over again, if you still disagree read over it again.

it pisses me off when inconsiderete and narrow minded people say "**** war, it's for the stupid..."

Men have gone to war and lost their lives for the freedom you are enjoying at the moment, why? so you can comfortably sit your asses down on the moral high ground and call them stupid.

there are two things I'm willing to fight for, A) I'm attacked or my people and beliefs are being oppressed, but i would never transgress in either case.

Statments like "**** war" are just too generalistic, some wars are unnecessary and wrong but that doesn't mean to say all wars are stupid.

Narrow-minded people I can't stand, another type of people I can't stand are hypocrites, so by your token I'm a hypocrite so I therefore hate myself.

I'm not saying I think all war is unjust but I do think 95-99% of the wars are unnecessary and that there are more humane ways of dealing with things. Take "Starman" and "K-Pax" for example, their race is the most civilized and intelligent any Earthling will see... they don't have war and, in Starman, despise hunting. You can call them narrow-minded idiots but, as I just said, they are far more intelligent than any of us. This is not flaming you for your standpoint is more liberal than some of these morons that will do anything to cause war (even without sufficient evidence for war in the first place). Freedom... aren't they fighting for Iraqi's freedom, not our own? I didn't feel like I had any less freedom before the war... maybe I'm suffering severe memory loss but I doubt it. Well, then again, maybe I am since we had to give away our two sweet cats never to be seen again, move away from our house to a much less affluent place, and whatever other $hit you want to pile onto the list. In fact, I'd be "sitting" better than I am now if we hadn't gone to war and put the country in a huge deficit. I'd be sitting in my own room with the smaller cat lying on my bed as she commonly did working on my computer. So I'll say it again... F*** war (in general), the economy needs our attention. As for the people in Iraq... as much as I'd like see them getting some help, as far as I'm concerned, many are lost maniacs... there's no help for them. We can't afford to have our country become a third world one. I don't consider myself political but war just pisses me off.

missed my point again, a war that takes place in another country is not an act of self defense.

you can say f war all you want but at the end of the day you will be a person who strives to help lap rats but isn't willing to extend a hand to your fellow man.

Well I've talked to you about this on MSN so you know how I feel...

not certian that i do,

Exactly. I was going to add "Or do you..." to the post haha. Some of my beliefs are ever-changing. Gees o' peas I would have never guessed this thread would be so controversial... starting with a post about the money spent on the war in Iraq.

what are the right reasons? There is not a single decent war out there, that has passed or is enduring at the moment, not a single one. The truth is, u fight because u want ur country's codes and opinions to overcome another country's or because u want their land period. Im sorry to break it to whoever is patriotic (about any country) because at any given point u are giving up ur life for a government that at some point has tried to screw u badly, and is PROBABLY screwing u badly in sending u and ur family and friends off to war. I remain to say that my quote was just fine, and it is not narrow minded, narrow minded is to think that war will always be a solution to something

Why does killing people have to be a factor?

Better yet: There is laws stating that you cannot murder anyone, nor can you steal from anyone. But... what's the government doing?

AHA, I've never thought about that aspect of it... very good gtx.

I don't give a rat's ass whether the war/s happening at the moment are happening for the right reasons or not, I never said they were.

what i'm saying is *I* will fight for the right reasons, and there have been justifiable wars in history which I would've gladly taken part in.

but what are the right reasons? your reasons? thats being too subjective. sorry..war sux either way