"American military spending on Iraq is now approaching $8 billion a month. Accounting for inflation, this is half as much again as the average monthly cost of the Vietnam War; the total spent so far has long surpassed the cost of the entire Apollo space programme. Three and a half months of occupation costs the equivalent of Iraq’s estimated oil revenues for the current financial year. We now know, thanks to the leaked report of James Baker’s Iraq Study Group, that if US troops withdrew, they would in all probability be redeployed to neighbouring countries, increasing the already massive expenditure and inevitably threatening new arenas of conflict. Here’s an unimaginable alternative. If the US army left the region, and if the money was instead handed out to every Iraqi man, woman and child, they would each receive more than $300 a month."
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n21/harr04_.html
Kinda makes ya laff.
Originally posted by Bosse de NageI read somewhere that the US's arms budget since the second world war would be the equivellant to $23 million each year since the day Jesus died.
"American military spending on Iraq is now approaching $8 billion a month. Accounting for inflation, this is half as much again as the average monthly cost of the Vietnam War; the total spent so far has long surpassed the cost of the entire Apollo space programme. Three and a half months of occupation costs the equivalent of Iraq’s estimated oil revenu ...[text shortened]... more than $300 a month."
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n21/harr04_.html
Kinda makes ya laff.
I can't find it though, so maybe it was just a dream.
Originally posted by catfoodtimHmm...I think inflation in Iraq is pretty dire (thanks to their saviours from Turtle Island), so probably not much...A month's groceries? Anyone who wants a gun already has one, I think.
The question is: What would the typical Iraqi do with $300 a month?
Of course this thread is about Iraq, not the USA, since it's not a Middle Eastern country--unless it goes against precedent and establishes a colony!