Sunday, June 22, 2008

War in Iraq... Breaking Down the Numbers

Congress just approved another 162 billion dollars for war in Iraq, and with little conflict. Democrats are becoming weak; or maybe this is all a game. But 162 billion dollars FOR WAR should NOT be taken lightly. Let me break this down for you in a very simplistic way.

In the 6 years we've been at war, an estimated 1.2 million Iraqi civilians have been killed, and over 4,000 U.S. troops. And JUST THIS WEEK we've approved 162 billion dollars for the next YEAR of war. So, let's break this down onto a daily, monthly, hourly, and yes, even to a second by second basis.

This means on average 1.8 American troops die PER DAY. Every DAY that troops are over there "fighting," an average of two (of the troops people supposedly support) DIE. Dead. Never come back. But that's not the worst.

In the 6 years of war, 1.2 MILLION Iraqi civilians have died (the vast, vast, vast majority innocent men, women, and children). Breaking this down day by day is still to high. Because this equals to about 550 Iraqi civilians killed PER DAY. That means 22 civilians are killed every hour in Iraq on average! Which means that about every 3 minutes, an innocent civilian dies in Iraq... a country that had nothing to do with September 11th.

Now, to look at this 162 billion dollars for the next year of war. 162 billion dollars equals out to $443, 835, 616.40... PER DAY! Yes, that is nearly 450 million dollars per day. There are research grants requested to cure diseases such as AIDS that don't even get 1% of that in any given year; some, not even in a decade, or ever! Hurricane Katrina victims got 10.5 billion for all of that damage. We spend that in Iraq in about THREE WEEKS!
But, let's break this down even more, this means that congress just approved (in the form of money we don't even have, mind you) $18, 493, 150.68 (over 18 million dollars) PER HOUR for WAR. Which is also about $308,219.18 per MINUTE. Which is over $5,000 per SECOND! Per second!!!! Our congress just approved 5,000 dollars per second for WAR in Iraq. A war in which we kill an average of a civilian every 3 minutes. So how much does it cost to kill one civilian (how much do we spend every 3 minutes in Iraq?): just barely under $1,000,000 (one million dollars)! Let me say that one more time in case it didn't sink it. WE! SPEND! ONE! MILLION! DOLLARS! EVERY! THREE! MINUTES! ON! WAR! IN! IRAQ! AND! KILL! A! CIVILIAN! EVERY! THREE! MINUTES! TOO!

It takes me about 5 minutes to drive to the grocery store and buy a bottle of water that costs one dollar. But we Americans, as a country, spend one dollar on war in less than 1/5000th of a second, every second... and have been doing so for over 6 years.

And finally... the cherry on top (so to speak). We spend this much and kill this much in a country (2 countries counting Afghanistan) that had absolutely nothing to do with the September 11th, 2001 attacks. The attacks were supposedly orchestrated by Bin Laden, who lives in Saudi Arabia. Coincidentally, Saudi Arabia is where we get most of our oil from, and who we just met with to try and find a way to keep oil at $4 a gallon, instead of having it rise even more. That's the "country" we deem responsible for Sept. 11th. And they are the country we are doing business with.

That is all.

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