Cost of Iraq war is much too high

By Ellen Ratner
As I write this column, the cost of the Iraq War is about $439 billion. By the time we reach the five year mark, we will have spent $500 billion. We can debate the "surge," the reasons for the war, if it is indeed a civil war, but we can’t debate the costs. The billions of dollars spent is set down in black and white in the budget, and the various war supplemental funding bills have been passed by Congress and signed into law by the president.

Other continuous wars such as the Korean "conflict" have added lots of red ink to our national budget. Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul recently said that Korea has cost us more than one trillion dollars in more than 55 years, and we still have a big problem with North Korea.

As human beings in a complex society, we ask ourselves on a daily basis if we are spending our money wisely. Rich or poor, it is a question that comes up with almost every purchase. Is the car I buy worth the money? Is the education I have saved for going to help my child make it in the world? Is the charity I give to going to use the money wisely? Those same questions need to be asked about our spending on the war.

Some believe our foreign aid is simply a waste of money, while others believe it is not only a moral imperative, but it is also vital to our national interests because that money enables us to win the hearts and minds of those who may have been future enemies. Others conjecture that the foreign aid we give is necessary to prevent disease from traveling across the seas and causing more deaths than a thousand Sept. 11s.

I am sure I will hear from many of you that every penny of the war is worth it. We need it to combat terrorism. There are, however, many uses that money could be spent on, and here are just a few proposals: