Kristy+S

. __ The United States is Broke __ Kristy Smyth The cost of the war in Iraq is so unbelievable I can’t imagine how our country is ever going to get out of debt. There are so many different categories in which money is spent. The money from 9/11, the cost of sending the troops to the war and bringing them home, the money for living and equipment for the troops, the money the American people have to pay, the overall cost of the war, and the biggest cost is the loss of a loved one in the war. September 11 cost America a bundle of money. The costs of 9/11 are broken down into different categories: short term, medium term, and long term effects, along with direct and indirect impacts. The short term and direct impacts are much easier to calculate and measure than the long term indirect impacts. September 11 terrorist attacks caused far more damage than any other terrorist attack in resent history. Lower Manhattan lost 30 percent of their office space and about 200,000 jobs were lost or relocated out of New York City for at least a period of time. The destruction to private businesses was $14 billion, $1.5 billion for state enterprises, $0.7 billion for federal enterprises. Rescue and clean up amounted to at least $11 billion. The direct cost came to $27.2 billion. On another note, it cost way more than I could fathom just to send troops over to the war. The Congressional Budget Office said that today sending troops and equipment to the Persian Gulf to fight in Iraq and returning them home would cost almost $25 billion. They calculated that the initial cost of sending troops to the war cost about $14 billion. The first month of combat cost $10 billion and the months after that dropped slightly to $8 billion. The budget offices figures that after the war, bringing the troops and equipment back home will cost $9 billion. American occupation of Iraq could cost between $1 billion and $4 billion. War is never good. It costs too much and everyone suffers. The American people are suffering from the war as well as everyone else. We have paid more money to the war than we even know. The economy is down because of the war. Gas prices have sky rocketed beyond belief. Some people, even people in Congress, are being unrealistic about the prices and they don’t think it is as much as everyone says. Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz “hoped that U.S. partners would chip in, as they had in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, or that Iraq's oil would pay for the damages (Bilmes).” A source says it will cost the tax payer $1.7 billion for reconstruction to Iraq. Although we have spent an obscene amount of money on the war there is no greater loss than the loss of a loved one who was killed in the war. No one can understand the [|pain a family must feel when one if their loved one dies] for their country. It is incredibly overwhelming for the whole community. It is said that 1 out of 5 family members must give up there job to take care of a wounded soldier. Our troops are not fighting for fame or glory or money, they are doing it out of a selfless act for our country. These men and women risk their lives every day for people they don’t even know. We do not show them enough appreciation for their work. When a soldier is killed in Iraq or Afghanistan his/her family receives a check for $500,000 for life insurance with a “death gratuity”. This money doesn’t even begin to relieve the family from the loss. This money may seem like a lot, but the insurance companies give more money to the family of a kid who dies in a car accident than they do these soldiers. This is truly unthinkable and astonishing that the heroes of our country only get $500,000 when they are killed fighting for us. The thought of this makes me sad and angry. After looking up these results it makes me want to do more to help the war. I want to become a part of the giving to our troops because they deserve it. When adding up all the money we spent, burrowed, and insurance by the end of the Bush administration The United States of America will be $1 trillion in debt. Since our nation is in such a high debt it makes it difficult to fix things that need to be done in our country. It’s hard to repair broken roads and bridges, make better schools, and afford new health care plans. The U.S. economy is facing recession. We can’t fix it because the U.S. has already spent $200 billion on the war this year alone which makes the prices go up and us in deeper debt. Everyone is trying to calculate the final cost for the war. This is very difficult because the war is not over yet and the government doesn’t know what will happen next. President Bush will not estimate a final cost of the war. At one of his meeting he proclaimed that the cost of the war will be told when it is time. The war in Iraq is the second most costly war in U.S. history, right behind World War II. It is said that the war has cost $250 billion since the invasion in March of 2003. Since September 11, 2001 the war has cost about a half-trillion dollars which is almost as much as the Vietnam War. Also, Congress asked for an addition $120 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, this is the highest cost ever. [|The cost of 2006] was $35 billion higher than what Congress had estimated the Defense Department would need this year. Currently, the Defense Department is spending $100,000 http://voicethread.com/#e128116per minute in Iraq and $18,000 per minute in Afghanistan. More than $400 billion will be spent this year. Since the cost is going up by the second at 2:59 p.m.on May 7, 2008 the war costs [|$530,754,814,799]. Many say the war may cost $60 billion or more, but really the full cost of the war may reach $2 trillion.

__Work Cited__ Bilmes, Linda. "The Iraq War Will Cost U.S. $3 Trillion, and Much More." __washingtonpost.com__. 9 March 2008. 7 May 2008 . Looney, Robert. "Economic Costs to the United States Stemming From the 9/11 Attacks." __Center for Contemporary Conflict__. 7 May 2008. Center for Contemporary Conflict. 7 May 2008 . Mazzetti, Mark. "Politics." __The Seattle Times__. 3 February 2006. 7 May 2008 . "One Day = $720 million." __You Tube__ 7 May 2008 7 May 2008 . Rosenbaum, David. "World." __The New York Times__. 7 May 2008. 7 May 2008 . Stiglitz, Joseph (2006) "The High Cost of the Iraq War," //The Economists' Voice//: Vol. 3 : Iss. 3, Article 5. Available at: http://www.bepress.com/ev/vol3/iss3/art5 The Washington Post Company, "The Rising Cost of the War in Iraq." __washingtonpost.com__. 7 May 2008. 7 May 2008 . Uncategorized, "The Cost of the War|The War in iraq Costs." __US Soldier__. 7 May 2008. 7 May 2008 <http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.us-soldier.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/iraq-war_us_soldiercom.jpg&imgrefurl=http://us-soldier.com