Dirty deeds done expensively

Part of the pre-Iraq War marketing was how cheap and easy it would be.

Rep. Jan Schakowski (D-IL) has a great — if hideously formatted — roundup of GOP claims of a zipless war. (h/t)

Just as the media didn't question whether Iraq actually had WMD, it failed to investigate the rumored stockpiles of chocolates and flowers.

Turns out, not only was there was no yellowcake, there was no cakewalk either.

When all is said and done, the costs of this misadventure are unimaginably high.

Who could have predicted it would be costly to have the media give a free ride to a naïve, incompetent, impulsive, sanctimonious, corrupt, bellicose and altogether juvenile presidential candidate, for half of America to vote for such a person, for the Supreme Court to suppress vote counting, and for Congress to enable every bad idea that person ever had or was fed? Live and learn, I guess.

Estimates put the US's financial cost in the $2 trillion range:

"The highest-grossing movie ever, Titanic, took in $1.8 billion. We spend that in Iraq in one week."

To paraphrase pre-lobotomy Dennis Miller, "Let me put that in perspective. If there were only one guy, he'd have to pay two trillion dollars." Another way to put it in perspective is to grab American Conservative from Miller's nightstand and read "Money for Nothing: Billions of dollars have disappeared, gone to bribe Iraqis and line contractors’ pockets":

When the final page is written on America’s catastrophic imperial venture, one word will dominate the explanation of U.S. failure—corruption....

In one notorious incident in April 2004, $1.5 billion in cash that had just been delivered by three Blackhawk helicopters was handed over to a courier in Erbil, in the Kurdish region, never to be seen again. Afterwards, no one was able to recall the courier’s name or provide a good description of him.

Paul Bremer, meanwhile, had a slush fund in cash of more than $600 million in his office for which there was no paperwork. One U.S. contractor received $2 million in a duffel bag. Three-quarters of a million dollars was stolen from an office safe, and a U.S. official was given $7 million in cash in the waning days of the CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] and told to spend it “before the Iraqis take over.” Nearly $5 billion was shipped from New York in the last month of the CPA. Sources suggest that a deliberate attempt was being made to run down the balance and spend the money while the CPA still had authority and before an Iraqi government could be formed.

Where does that money come from?

Raising taxes on America's corporations and wealthiest citizens is off the table, so golly, who's going to pay? It couldn't be people on the middle and lower rungs of the economy and their children and grandchildren, could it? It couldn't come from cutting corners on education, health care, public works, alternative-energy investments, and actual homeland security, could it? It couldn't come from giving short shrift to the veterans we're keeping in Iraq for tour after tour, could it?

The cost to soldiers is heartbreaking. Yes, war is Hell. But unnecessary war is more hellish, still. US deaths have surpassed the 3,100 mark. "Non-mortal casualties" are nearing 50,000. Their personal economic and emotional costs are staggering, as well. And for what?

Estimates of Iraqi deaths are in the hundreds of thousands, and life in today's Mesopotamia is a nightmare of suicide bombs, kidnapping, torture, and vigilante executions. And then there are then hazards of living under occupation.

A quick peek at today's news from Iraq includes:

AZIZIYA - A car bomb in a vegetable market killed 17 people and wounded 27 in the town of Aziziya, about 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL - Police found seven bullet-riddled bodies dumped in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, police and hospital sources said.

GARMA - Police found the bodies of three people with gunshot wounds in the head in the town of Garma, near Falluja, 50km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

NEAR FALLUJA - A car bomb exploded near a mosque and killed a worshipper and wounded four others on Wednesday in a town near Falluja, police said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen attacked the convoy of Ammar Tu'uma, a member of the Fadhila Shi'ite political party, and wounded one of his guards near Mansour district in western Baghdad, police and the media office of his party said. He was unharmed.

BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi forces raided the Health Ministry building in central Baghdad and arrested Hakim Zamili, the deputy health minister, a ministry spokesman and witnesses said.

BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed six people and wounded 10 others in the New Baghdad district in eastern Baghdad, police said.

SUWAYRA - Three roadside bombs exploded in quick succession, killing seven people and wounding 23 others on Wednesday in the town of Suwayra, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said on Thursday.

BAQUBA - Gunmen attacked a rapid reaction police unit and killed four policemen and a civilian in the religiously mixed city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Oh, and:

A U.S. airstrike Thursday killed 13 insurgents in a volatile area west of Baghdad, the military said. Local officials said 45 civilians, including women and children, died in the attack.

Just another day in paradise.

Do you care, Colin Powell? Do you care, Judith Miller? Do you care, chickenhawks?

Are you proud of the numerous long-term costs of waging a withering, ill-conceived, and unnecessary war? Are you proud of the damage wrought by prisoner abuse and curtailment of domestic freedoms from this metastasized "War on Terror"?

• Turned tamed, secular Iraq into a hotbed of religious/ethnic terror
• Diminished our standing as an honest broker for Israel/Palestine problems
• Pushing us to the brink of war with Iran (or at least helping provide excuses to re-try the Bush Doctrine in a neighboring and much more formidable country)
  
• Potentially triggering conflicts throughout the region, which could lead to a true World War and/or consolidation of a militant Caliphate
• Per the National Intelligence Estimate, increasing anti-US terrorist recruitment
  
• Lost opportunity to secure Afghanistan and go after Al-Qaeda
• General loss of moral authority, trustworthiness
• Validating beliefs about Americans as unilateralists — as violent, arrogant, ignorant cowboys
• Giving democracy a black eye
• Squandering all post-9/11 international goodwill — and then some
• Loss of motivation for other countries to help us with intelligence and future conflicts
  
• Giving allies and enemies the (correct) impression that we're uninterested in diplomacy
• Giving enemies the (correct) impression that we practice pre-emptive war; may lead them to heavily arm and to strike first and hard
• Giving enemies the (correct) impression that we practice torture and extraordinary renditions; may encourage them to ignore Geneva Convention protection for American POWs
  
• Diminishing our reputation for both strength and intelligence – may embolden enemies
• Loss of trust in our government and our national integrity
• Loss of a credible media
  
• Created bitter divisions at home
• Straining our military capacity
• Straining our National Guard capacity
• Making military recruitment harder
• Loss of civil liberties (in broader so-called war on terror)

So, tell me, was removing Saddam Hussein worth all of that? Were those phantom WMDs worth all of that?

If your answer is yes, please say "hi" to Mrs. Cheney.