Amongst all the statistics about Iraq, one seems to bother me-the amount of money spent. Having spent 3 trillion already seems like an awful lot, but the war isn’t even over yet. One week of the war in Iraq/Afghanistan costing 3.5 billion dollars just sounds somewhat like a waste of funds.
At this point, we do need to stay in the Middle East, but cutting down a bit on the funds to help the struggling economy is a better use of millions of dollars. We’re spending 7 billion per year on Global Warming, so just think of the possibilities of taking that money and spending it elsewhere.
One of the things that sticks out about this funding is the fact that only a little goes to paying the troops. About 350 million dollars goes to the government troops, or one tenth of the money spent per week. This, really, is not enough pay, considering the fact that some employees of private contractors make ten times as much. The government spends about $650 million on personnel in Iraq. The other $2,850,000,000 goes to weapons, supplies, and services (such as cleaning the runways).
Considering the debt we are in, we have to do anything we can to cut costs and get the job done as soon as possible. We can’t keep sending billions and billions into Iraq while things are falling apart (moneywise) back in the United States.
There are so many different things we could spend all that money on. Millions of 4-year college scholarships for students, hiring millions of teachers, buying trillions of donuts, and the list goes on. Now, I don’t know if the donuts are important, but scholarships and teachers could really help the country.
Hopefully all this wasteful spending will end when the next president comes into office. The thing we need most around here is change.
Sources of Information: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/78683/?page=3
8 Comments
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I totally agree. Iraq is a waste of money. I mean, how ethical is it to spend a lot of money to kill the enemy and our own soldiers? By the way, excellent research!
If you are against war why is your name ilikewar?
I find it funny that the government is cutting back on part of the budget except for the war issue. Most of Americans are against the war and would rather have that 3.5 million go to something like health care.
back on EVERY** part
I am not against the war, Tyler, just I think we could do alot of good to cut back a bit on the funding.
I like this one. Iraq is definitely a hold up in our economy, we are wasting our money. Though,t until like you said hopefully the next president, we will have to suffer.
Also on a side note I would like to point out that trillions of donuts are very important, think of all the poor starving children in africa that could eat them.
JK
I’m not sure if it’s possible to avoid enconomic problems or war with such a moron for a president.
I like that last comment as much as I like war.