By Kenneth J. Theisen,
8/1/07
On July 31, 2007 Robert A. Sunshine, Assistant Director for
Budget Analysis at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) testified that Bush’s
“war on terrorism” could cost an additional “$1,010 billion over the 2008-2017
period.” Since the CBO only deals with
budget matters, Mr. Sunshine did not shed any light on how many more hundreds
of thousands of deaths, if not millions, would result as a result of the
war. The CBO estimate is over a trillion
dollars for the next ten years. This is
on top of the $602 billion already budgeted according to the CBO.
According to the testimony provided to the Committee on the
Budget of the House of Representatives, the “CBO projected the costs through
2017 of all activities associated with operations in Iraq,
Afghanistan,
and the war on terrorism”” They used two
scenarios, one where the military force levels on the ground in the “war on
terrorism” would be reduced to 30,000 in 2010 and remain at that level through
2017. In that “rosy” scenario, the war
would cost up to $603 billion over the 10 year period. In the second scenario, troop levels would
only go down to 75,000 by 2013. That is
the one trillion plus scenario. The CBO testimony also made clear that they
were not counting naval personnel deployed aboard ships to fight the “war on
terrorism” so these are low-ball estimates of the actual possible costs.
These are only estimates by the CBO and they do not take
into account possible expansion of the “war on terrorism.” Both scenarios are based on a reduction of
troop levels on the ground in Afghanistan,
Iraq,
and other places. But what if the U.S. attacks Iran or other countries? How many more will die and how much will it
cost to kill them?
Clearly any scenario that continues the so-called “war on
terrorism” is unacceptable and will just be a continuation of the Bush regime’s
crimes against humanity. The cost in
lives and in dollars is far too high to allow this regime to exist more than
one more day.