Vietnam, Sr.

Back in January 2003, Donald Rumsfeld predicted that the Iraq war would rack up "something under $50 billion for the cost." Three months later, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said, "We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”

Then there's reality. The Independent reports that the US has already spent $320 billion on the war, and that given our pace of spending in Iraq, Bush's endeavor will cost the US more than the eight-year Vietnam War. In today's dollars, Vietnam's pricetag was just under $600 billion. Iraq is expected to cost $700 billion or more. Heckuva job, Rummy.

Then there are the lives: the most violent month of 2006, April saw the deaths of 71 Americans, putting the war's total at 2,399. Iraqi civilians is another matter: while I've seen estimates at 70,000 non-military Iraqis killed, Iraq Body Count puts it at around 38,000--a figure some say "vastly underestimates the number of deaths in Iraq."

Then, of course, there are the injured (graphic imagery).


mp3: Howard Zinn on impeachment.