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Iraq, a thousand days later: A sub-total for your convenience

Your check. Please come again.

One thousand days of war, and where do we stand? One way to measure the cost of George Bush’s ill-considered war is look at what we’ve spent: 204.4 billion (yes, billion) dollars. That is an astonishing sum; that’s a lot of zeroes. $204,400,000,000.

So far.

Another way to look at that figure: it’s more than the gross national income of all but nineteen countries in the world as of this writing.

There are one hundred seventy-three nations on Earth, incidentally. Start with number twenty on the list - Austria - and scroll down. George Bush’s war has them all beat.

London-based daily The Independent provides other salient numbers in the cost - so far - of the war in Iraq:

2,339: Allied troops killed

15,955: US troops wounded in action

98: U.K troops killed

30,000: Estimated Iraqi civilian deaths

0: Number of WMDs found

66: Journalists killed in Iraq.

63: Journalists killed during Vietnam war

8: per cent of Iraqi children suffering acute malnutrition

53,470: Iraqi insurgents killed

67: per cent Iraqis who feel less secure because of occupation

$343: Average monthly salary for an Iraqi soldier. Average monthly salary for an American soldier in Iraq: $4,160.75

5: foreign civilians kidnapped per month

47: per cent Iraqis who never have enough electricity

20: casualties per month from unexploded mines

25-40: per cent Estimated unemployment rate, Nov 2005

251: Foreigners kidnapped

70: per cent of Iraqi’s whose sewage system rarely works

183,000: British and American troops are still in action in Iraq.

13,000: from other nations

90: Daily attacks by insurgents in Nov ‘05. In Jun ‘03: 8

60-80: per cent Iraqis who are “strongly opposed” to presence of coalition troops

(Blatantly ripped off from Editor & Publisher, and with a courteous nod to Markos.)

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