Cheap?

This is coolbert:

Heard some astounding assertions on public broadcast television the other day. Economists are speaking about the cost of the current Iraq war. According to these "experts", THIS WAR IS CHEAP COMPARED TO OTHER WARS AMERICAN HAS FOUGHT IN!!

This is a big surprise to me. Contrary to what I had thought.

The consensus [among the experts] is that:

As a percentage of gross domestic product [GDP], the cost for the current Iraq war is small as compared to:

World War Two - - 45 % of GDP at the time.

Korean War - - 15 % of GDP at the time.

The Iraq war is costing on an annual basis only 5 % of GDP??!!

[GDP is the value of all goods and services produced in a year. I have to trust that what these economists are saying is true!]

War is bad for the economy. Sun Tzu 2500 years ago stated the same. A prolonged war can bring a nation to bankruptcy and impoverish the entire populace.

This is not to say that the Iraq war has not been expensive. It HAS COST $200 billion dollars so far, almost all BORROWED MONEY! Some “experts” have estimated that the ultimate cost of the war will be $2 trillion dollars!! Surely NO ONE would say that IS CHEAP.

My own perception is that in the long run, this current war will be extremely costly. I am of course talking only about dollars, and not loss of life and limb. For decades to come, paying back the money borrowed to finance the war will be a tremendous drain upon the federal government. The bond issue used to pay for the Vietnam War was NOT PAID OFF UNTIL 1998. We will see the same situation with regard to the Iraq war??

Yes!? true!?

coolbert.