In 2003 Donald Rumsfeld estimated a war with Iraq would cost $60 billion. Five years later, the cost of Iraq war operations is over 10 times that figure. So what’s behind the ballooning dollar signs? Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilme’s exhaustedly researched book, “The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Iraq war’
Rumsfeld decision let Bin Laden escape: report
Osama bin Laden was within the grasp of US forces in late 2001 and could have been caught if then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld hadn’t rejected calls for reinforcements, a hard-hitting US Senate report says.
The report indicates this happened about Dec. 2001, after 9/11, but before the start of the Iraq War.
With bin Laden dead, they [...]
Almost 20% of Iraq and Afghanistan vets have PTSD or depression
From Rand Corp. research
About 18.5 percent of US soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq currently have PTSD or depression. 19.5 percent report traumatic brain injuries.
An estimated 31 percent of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have a mental health condition or reported experiencing a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury)
About 300,000 currently suffer from PTSD or [...]
What happened to the wars?
The wars have mostly vanished from the headlines. Lots of people are still getting killed and maimed, displaced too. Yet because the violence has apparently lessened because of the surge, the wars are no longer front page news.
The presidential election campaigns are also surely a reason, as campaign news is becoming all-consuming, destroying any other [...]
