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The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict | 
 enlarge | Authors: Joseph E. Stiglitz, Linda J. Bilmes
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 2346
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.3
ISBN: 0393067017
Dewey Decimal Number: 956.704431
EAN: 9780393067019
ASIN: 0393067017
Publication Date: March 3, 2008
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Product Description
The true cost of the Iraq War is $3 trillion—and counting—rather than the $50 billion projected by the White House.
Apart from its tragic human toll, the Iraq War will be staggeringly expensive in financial terms. This sobering study by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard professor Linda J. Bilmes casts a spotlight on expense items that have been hidden from the U.S. taxpayer, including not only big-ticket items like replacing military equipment (being used up at six times the peacetime rate) but also the cost of caring for thousands of wounded veterans—for the rest of their lives. Shifting to a global focus, the authors investigate the cost in lives and economic damage within Iraq and the region. Finally, with the chilling precision of an actuary, the authors measure what the U.S. taxpayer's money would have produced if instead it had been invested in the further growth of the U.S. economy. Written in language as simple as the details are disturbing, this book will forever change the way we think about the war.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 a more expensive war May 15, 2008
Just for some comparison, the most expensive war in history has been the War on Poverty. After 43 years and some 8 trillion spent, there is no exit strategy yet. Why no book or movie about this huge expense? I'm just asking.
An author with street cred May 10, 2008
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
Joseph Stiglitz, co-author of this book, has street cred, since he is a Nobel laureate. That said, I suspect that there will be predictable responses to this book. Those who oppose the war will love it; those who support the Iraq War will be displeased. That is unfortunate in that, even though Stiglitz and co-author Linda Bilmes are clearly anti-war and anti-Bush, there are still many useful contributions of this book, as it addresses its purpose (Page xvii): "Our goal was simple: to determine the true cost of the war. regardless of whether one supported or opposed U.S. actions in the region, we believed that voters had a right to know the real cost of our policies."
The authors note that four factors have pushed increased direct spending in Iraq and Afghanistan and, overall, the GWOT (Global War on Terrorism): costs of increased number of troops; rising cost of personnel (military forces plus contractors); increasing cost of fuel; keeping equipment in working condition and replacing deteriorated equipment. However, the authors also note that these direct costs of the conflict understate what the actual cost is (and will be). The costs not showing up in official budget numbers: cost of over 4,000 dead troops; the large number of casualties and the care that will be needed to address their injuries; interest payments on the borrowing for the war. They also note that it is difficult to calculate actual costs because the national government accounting system is phony, and would not be tolerated in the private sector. The "cash accounting" system actually hides future costs. They conclude their estimate that the real costs of the war will be around $3 trillion.
As they estimate costs in area after area, they note that (Page 55) "There is a simple message in this book, one that needs to be repeated over and over again: there is no free lunch, and there are no free wars." Pages 57-59 lay out their estimated budgetary costs of the war, category by category.
Following chapters examine issues such as the cost of caring for veterans, costs of war that the government doesn't pay (e.g., lost productive capacity of those Americans killed or seriously wounded or suffering mental health problems, and so on), macroeconomic effects of the war (e.g., rising price of oil, opportunity costs of funds not being available for other socially useful projects, borrowing for the war crowds out money available for domestic investment [the tally of such costs shows up on page 130]), other costs imposed on the global community (e.g., costs to Great Britain).
They conclude with a series of lessons that they believe should lead to reforms, to reduce the odds of such an "adventure" in the future. Some of the suggestions are budgetary, others are structural (making sure that Congress has accurate and relevant information so that it can serve its original role on checks and balances with the President).
This is a good book in that it provides what seem to be some reasonable estimates of the actual cost of the war. There are some problems, though, too. For one, there is at some places political naiveté. For instance, among opportunity costs, they cite the less money is available for important policies such as education, roads, and research. Question: Would such funding be provided, given the political currents in the United States? The fact that funds might be freed up does not mean that they will be spent on such projects as those noted by the authors. Also, their critical orientation toward the President and war almost automatically mean that some readers will turn off in terms of considering the many useful aspects of their work. Finally, while I am not overly optimistic about the end result of our Iraqi involvement, to say that it and must be a failure is a bit too cocky a statement to me. I am pessimistic, but none of us can foresee the future. . . .
Anyhow, this is an important work, rather dry in its style but readable enough.
Three trillion dollar mess May 9, 2008
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is a poorly written book. It is full of assumptions and speculations based more on a liberal political view point than fact. On top of that it is boring. I am sorry I spent my money and time on it.
The stories about the way our wounded soldiers are treated by our government should be read by all thinking about enlisting in the army or marines. Unless you are about to enlist, don't waste your money.
 Accounting of Folly May 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This concise and well written book is a serious attempt to make a reasonable estimate of the cost of the Iraq War. The authors are the Nobelist economist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, a specialist on public finance. The authors develop estimates for the direct Federal budgetary costs, the remarkably large longterm cost of providing health care benefits for injured Veterans, additional costs not covered by Federal outlays, and macroeconomic costs. This accounting proved to be surprisingly difficult; much of the relevant information is scattered, actually hidden, and the authors are quite critical of frustratingly lax government accounting standards that are an obstacle to assessing costs. Important estimates are quite literally that, estimates. Assessing the fraction of the Pentagon's regular budget that goes to the war and the fraction of increased oil prices due to the war is informed guess work, though the authors attempt to make conservative estimates.
Virtually all of the subtotals and the final total are remarkably high. Stiglitz and Bilmes provide both a very optimistic and what they regard as a more realistic set of projections. Even the lower estimate in enormous. The magnitude of these effects is so large that subtraction of erroneous estimates of some individual costs will still leave trillions of dollars of costs. While this projection is unilikely to be precisely accurate, Stiglitz and Bilmes are certainly in the neighborhood.
Written as something of a polemic, this book has some other interesting features. It is full of interesting facts. For example, applications to most of the service academies are down by 10%-20%, something remarkable during a period when college applications have reached a all time high. This book contains the best concise set of arguments for a rapid withdrawal from Iraq I've read.
Stiglitz and Bilmes conclude with a set of specific policy recommendations. Many are procedural, such as forbidding use of emergency appropriations for war funding after one year of combat. Other, such as many of the recommendations for veterans care, are administrative reforms. Virtually all seem to be sensible though few will actually be established. The long term effect of this book is likely to be greater and more stringent attention to the long term economic consequences of American involvement in wars.
Useful estimates of the full costs of the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan April 24, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Joseph Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001, and Linda Bilmes, a lecturer at Harvard, have produced an estimate of the real cost of the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan.
In Iraq, 4,000 US troops have been killed, 58,000 wounded, and 100,000 have returned home with serious mental disorders. Stiglitz and Bilmes estimate that the USA's total lifetime medical, disability and social security costs for the two wars will be $717 billion through to 2017.
They estimate that the war against Iraq will cost the USA a total of $2.65 trillion through to 2017. The war on Afghanistan will cost another $850 billion through to 2017. The total is $3.5 trillion. (Bush misunderestimated it would be $50 billion, wrong by a factor of seventy.) This works out at $25,000 for every US household.
The costs of the two wars to the rest of the world are another $3 trillion, largely because the invasion has driven up oil prices from $25 a barrel to $120. This has cost the world $800 billion so far, and will have cost an estimated $1.6 trillion by 2015. It has cost us in Britain 24 billion so far, and will have cost an estimated 50 billion by 2015.
The wars' direct military costs to us in Britain so far are 8.7 billion; the estimated future costs till 2015 are another 7 billion. Veterans' disability and medical costs are 2.3 billion. The social costs of deaths and disabilities are another 2 billion. The total is 20 billion, 800 per household.
The First World War cost the USA $577 billion, the war on Korea $295 billion, the war on Vietnam $670 billion and the Gulf War $94 billion. The total cost of these four wars was $1.64 trillion, which is just half the cost of the two current wars.
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