The true cost of war- Gaurdian UK interview with Joseph Stiglitz.

[go west young man]

In 2005, a Nobel prize-winning economist began the painstaking process of calculating the true cost of the Iraq war. In his new book, he reveals how short-sighted budget decisions, cover-ups and a war fought in bad faith will affect us all for decades to come. Aida Edemariam meets Joseph Stiglitz.

So what did the Republicans say? "They had two reactions," Stiglitz says wearily. "One was Bush saying, 'We don't go to war on the calculations of green eye-shaded accountants or economists.' And our response was, 'No, you don't decide to fight a response to Pearl Harbour on the basis of that, but when there's a war of choice, you at least use it to make sure your timing is right, that you've done the preparation. And you really ought to do the calculations to see if there are alternative ways that are more effective at getting your objectives. The second criticism - which we admit - was that we only look at the costs, not the benefits. Now, we couldn't see any benefits. From our point of view we weren't sure what those were

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/28/iraq.afghanistan

[speedoo]

1. K&R, and bookmarked.

This appears to be THE authoritative text on the mind-boggling cost of this idiotic war. IMO, my children, grandchildren, etc. will be paying the cost of this war for the rest of this century, and perhaps even longer.

By the way OP, you might want to correct the author's name in your post heading. It's Stiglitz.

[go west young man]

2. Cheers and corrected.

:-)