Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005 HERE IS A CLARIFICATION or at least beginning of a discussion of the financial costs of the Iraq war. I've referenced the cost of $1 billion per day, which I have seen quoted several places. This is either a high-side estimate, an overestimate, or wrong -- or absolutely right -- but it's important to note that at this time the actual cost of the war is not really known. Buying a war is a consumer nightmare. You never know the quality of what you're getting, and the price keeps changing. There are all kinds of hidden extras. It's extremely confusing. There should be an 800 number you can call to complain. Here is what is known. To date, according to truthout.org and other sources, about $210 billion has been appropriated for the war so far (including much smaller operations in Afghanistan, with whom we are still allegedly at war) through fiscal year 2005. The fiscal year ends at the end of September. If we assume the estimate is correct, then that $210 billion covers about 30 months or about 900 days. This works out to $233 million per day, actually about a quarter billion dollars. Stated longhand, that's $233,000,000.00 per day. However -- this is only what we know about today. Think of it as the absolute rosy colored rock bottom take it home to your constituents wink wink bare minimum. The real figure is likely to be substantially higher, as the administration has had a habit of hiding the actual costs of the war since before the beginning. Just going over some of the possibilities that might not be included, or included all the way, there will be much equipment to replace, families to pay death benefits to, disabilities payments to soldiers, and the costs of medical care for a generation to come. There will obviously be cleanup and reparation costs after the war is over, if it's ever actually over. The armed services will have to put themselves back together, all with higher tech equipment that will cost tons of cash. There will be staggering rebuilding costs in Iraq that we're not hearing about today. It does not include intangible costs, like the cost to the environment. Cash values can be put on pollution and many other factors. And there are secondary costs to American communities, lost investment potential that the money spent on the war could have had, for example, if spent in more productive ways. There is the cost to the economy in higher fuel bills, lost manpower, and many forms of negligence of the primary responsibilities of government. As we've seen in New Orleans, not fixing a levee, which is cheap, can have massive effects on the entire economy. As far as I know, the quoted $210 billion figure is only a the "special appropriations" and does not include secret Black Budget expenses -- that is, expenses from the covert "intelligence" budget that nobody vaguely outside the very top echelons of the government ever sees. It may not even include what is spent out of the normal military budget. I will try to track that down. And, most important, the cost as stated it does not include one very special item: bank interest. Depending on the percentage rate and how long the money is borrowed, the real interest rate -- that is, the actual cost of interest in cash, not as a percentage -- could be double or triple that daily quarter bil, which will be passed onto our posterity. In other words, your dog's puppy's puppy's puppy's puppy's puppy's puppy's puppy's (142 times over) puppy's masters will be paying for the war that we are now seeing and which is in fact going nowhere and which has been paid out at the expense of our national infrastructure. Why do these people do it? Hmmmmmm. Can you say CARLYLE GROUP or HALLIBURTON? Ever heard of a poem called War Profit Litany by Allen Ginsberg? Here it is: http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Allen_Ginsberg/3704 If anyone is a specialist in the cost of the war or amortizing debts into the trillions of dollars, please drop me an email.     e