I don't give a rats arse about their credentials. Let's see them do a cost analysis on what might have happened had we not invaded Iraq. Until they actually take that exercise to its logical conclusion with multiple possible scenarios and cost-analyses of each scenario, the entire thing is a big pile of steaming sh!t, intellectually dishonest to say the least.
Furthermore, I would like to see these idiots do a similar analysis on what WWII cost the United States. 500,000 dead, I'm not even sure how many wounded. The entire U.S. economy pushed to the brink for the war effort for years. I'm guessing tens of trillions in 2008 dollars, maybe more. Without knowing the actual history of events, they would probably judge the whole thing a colossal waste of money and failure of epic proportion. F-ing bean counters, screw them. As for the human cost, we have a volunteer armed force and we should do everything we can as a nation to give our fighting men and women the best chances of survival and success. The new anti-IED vehicles, for instance - that's a great bit of American ingenuity making a direct different in saving lives. Ultimately, there is no way to measure in lives lost whether we should quit the fight. Otherwise, why even have an armed force at all? And where would that attitude have gotten us in 1941, huh? I agree with Loathe that we should establish a foreign legion that would allow people from anywhere in the world to volunteer to serve. After a period of time, they should be able to gain U.S. citizenship for their service. On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 5:21 AM, Gruss wrote: > > RoMunn wrote: > > Some knucklehead pulled that figure out of the air and you claim > > it as truth? > > Here are the knuckleheads: > > * Joseph E. Stiglitz of Columbia University is the winner of the 2001 > nobel prize in economics. > > * Linda J. Bilmes is a professor of public finance at Harvard's > Kennedy School of Government and a former assistant secretary for > management and budget in the U.S. Department of Commerce. > > And in determining the cost they included 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 > veteransfor the rest of their lives. > > So man up, dude. 3 Trillion. > > And you haven't answered the question: if you don't want to spend an > infinite amount of money, how many dollars and lives DO you want to > spend (excluding your own of course)? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:258557 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
