What We Could Have Bought Instead of the Iraq War

Obama was right on the Iraq War, and no matter how hard Palin(who held a rally in Florida yesterday where not one sign mentioned McCain's name) talks about 'victory' or 'winning' we would have been better off if we hadn't ever embarked on that path.

On a simple level, Obama's proposal to provide a $4,000 tax credit for college students, in return for the students performing 100 hours of community service, will probably not come to pass because it would cost $10 billion - the same amount of money we are spending each month in Iraq.

But let's look at the larger picture. Everyone, right and left, admits the total cost of the war will reach 1 trillion dollars. That's $1,000,000,000,000. What could we have paid for with that money instead of the Iraq War?

It could have paid for every high school student in the US to have a free college education.

It could have paid for off every penny of credit card debt in the US.

It could have doubled the number of policemen in the country - for 32 years.

It could have purchased 16.6 million homes, housing 43 million Americans.

It could have literally paved the entire US highway system with 23.5 karat gold leaf.

It could have produced enough ethanol, solar, and other alternative energies to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.

Or, we could have paid every single man, woman, and child in Iraq $36,000 not to fight us. And as the Bush administration points out, that's what they're doing now, and it's effective.

http://www.whatwecouldhavedonewiththemoney.com/

When I balance those things out, it's hard to make a case for this being a wise use of our money.