Quotes of the Morning: The Price of War

"Extending the war into Iraq would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Exceeding the U.N.'s mandate would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."
-George Bush [Sr.] and Brent Scowcroft, "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam", Time Magazine, 1998

“Dad forgot one more cost… The price tag. The cost was already getting a little high a few years ago.”
-Skippy

“I will soon submit to Congress a request for 87 billion dollars. The request will cover ongoing military and intelligence operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, which we expect will cost 66 billion dollars over the next year. This budget request will support our commitment to helping the Iraqi and Afghan people rebuild their own nations, after decades of oppression and mismanagement. We will provide funds to help them improve security. And we will help them to restore basic services, such as electricity and water, and to build new schools, roads, and medical clinics. This effort is essential to the stability of those nations, and therefore to our own security. Now and in the future, we will support our troops and we will keep our word to the more than 50 million people of Afghanistan and Iraq.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, September 7, 2003

“In just the last few months, Congress, at Bush's request, has doled out $87 billion to rebuild and secure Iraq and Afghanistan; approved a $401 billion defense appropriation bill, the largest ever; completed a $1 trillion tax cut on top of the $1.35 trillion reduction the president won in 2001; and approved a Medicare prescription drug benefit that will cost at least $400 billion over the next decade. If the energy bill is revived next year, add to the list at least another $26 billion in tax cuts for energy companies.
All of this, it's worth remembering, comes when the federal government already faces its largest deficit ever - some $374 billion last year, $84 billion more than the previous record held by Bush's father, George H.W. Bush.
Several reliable analysts project the federal deficit will soar past $500 billion this year -- and then remain near that unprecedented level for the indefinite future, even if the economy recovers. It's an understatement to conclude, as the Goldman Sachs investment bank did in a recent report, that the budget process in Washington is ‘out of control.’”
-Ronald Brownstein, December 2, 2003

“Well that is obviously the problem… We were spending money on the infrastructure. Dubya just this week said that that was an ‘err’. I still miss the days when they were still concerned about a measly $87 billion dollars though.”
-Skippy

“The cost of the war in Iraq will reach $320 billion after the expected passage next month of an emergency spending bill currently before the Senate, and that total is likely to more than double before the war ends, the Congressional Research Service estimated this week. […]
Even if a gradual troop withdrawal begins this year, war costs in Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to rise by an additional $371 billion during the phaseout, the report said, citing a Congressional Budget Office study. When factoring in costs of the war in Afghanistan, the $811 billion total for both wars would have far exceeded the inflation-adjusted $549 billion cost of the Vietnam War.
[…]
‘The costs are exceeding even the worst-case scenarios,’ said Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. (S.C.), the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
Such cost estimates may be producing sticker shock on Capitol Hill. This year, the wars will consume nearly as much money as the departments of Education, Justice and Homeland Security combined, a total that is more than a quarter of this year's projected budget deficit.”
-Washington Post, April 27, 2006

“That seems like a lot of money… I don’t remember them telling us that it would cost that much. Hmmm. Let’s go to our go-to-guy in Washington, the Don himself, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. Rummy, how much is the Iraq war going to cost?”
-Skippy

“Well, the Office of Management and Budget, has come up come up with a number that's something under $50 billion for the cost. How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much would be other countries, is an open question.”
-Donald Rumsfeld, April 11, 2003

“So… So far we’re only off by a factor of six from the initial estimated cost and our two wars will end up costing about one and a half times as much as Vietnam (assuming we begin the pull out soon), despite the fact that Vietnam waged for 14 years and our current wars have only been going on for five. Charming.”
-Skippy

“I'm worried about over committing our military around the world. I want to be judicious in its use. You mentioned Haiti. I wouldn't have sent troops to Haiti. I didn't think it was a mission worthwhile. It was a nation building mission. And it was not very successful. It cost us a couple billions of dollars and I'm not sure democracy is any better off in Haiti than it was before.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, October 12, 2000

“A free and peaceful Iraq will save this country money in the long term. It's important to get it done now.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, September 10, 2003