George W. Bush adviser Kenneth Adelman predicted the War in Iraq would be a “cakewalk.” As President Barack Obama announced today that all U.S. military troops would finally be leaving the “cakewalk” by year’s end after 9 deadly years (and as Fox “News” was busy ignoring the historic announcement), ThinkProgress put together a few numbers from what they describe as “The World’s Costliest Cakewalk”…
8 years, 215 days since the March 20, 2003 invasion of Iraq
8 years, 175 days since President George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln
4,479 U.S. military fatalities
30,182 U.S. military injuries
103,142 — 112,708 documented civilian deaths
2.8 million internally displaced Iraqis
$806 billion in federal funding for the Iraq War through FY2011
$3 — $5 trillion in total economic cost to the United States of the Iraq war according to economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Blimes
$60 billion in U.S. expenditures lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001
0 weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq
Well said.
A cakewalk must be diplomatic language for “when indoctrination is enlightenment” I suppose.
The Mother of all long hard slogs.
Some people are, understandably, skeptical, but from what I understand, Dianne Feinstein and her hubby won’t be pleased anyway.
I’ll take what I can get.
Israel attacks Iran before year’s end and this is moot. Change you can believe in.
You forgot:
“About 8 years and 35 days since George W. Bush said: ‘We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the 11 September attacks.’ ”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3118262.stm
Cakewalk:
“Every death mapped.”
Mitch:
I didn’t need to see that, but thanks anyway.
Really, Thanks!
Larry and Mitch,
That is for Baghdad only. Think of a million more than that.
Once upon a time on Brad Blog we used to link to Baghdad Burning, a blog where one of those dots is.
She had to stop blogging on this very date (10/22) in 2007.
A moment of silence please …
I spoke too soon. When I zoomed or de-zoomed it covered more than the zoom of Baghdad.
The link Brad provided for the $3 – $6 trillion costs is dated 2008.
The more recent estimate by Bilmes/Stiglitz is $6 trillion.
Oh Ernie, $3t, $6t, or $9t … whatsamattau, oils well that ends well innit?
@ # 7
Thanks, Dredd, for reminder about a great voice…
have you heard anything from her from later?
Be happy with what you’ve got… because the owners of this country don’t want that. I’m talking about the real owners now… the real owners. The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media….
george carlin
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”
“• Frank Zappa
these obusha blokes will repeat their parasitic operations until they can find no more hosts. who is it that they work for? who is hiding behind jp morgan, goldman sachs, imf, world bank, bank of international settlements,……? who does the world owe all this bogus debt to? who is it financing all these bogus parasitic wars? and the drones that will soon be assassinating US citizens on US soil on obusha’s kill list?
so can we at least find out who our owners are?
Fusion #11,
No, I haven’t heard more. I check the site from time to time.
We can hope.
Nik #12,
“so can we at least find out who our owners are?”
Good question.
They, the 1% hide themselves … they may be on the run too.