Thursday, March 20, 2008

Five Years Of War

The Iraq War, by the numbers, on its 5th anniversary this week:

Troops in Iraq - Total 164,481, including 155,000 from the US, 4,500 from the UK, 2,000 from Georgia, 900 from Poland, 650 from South Korea and 1,431 from all other nations

US Troop Casualities - 3,989 US troops; 98% male. 90% non-officers; 80% active duty, 12% National Guard; 74% Caucasian, 10% African-American, 11% Latino. 18% killed by non-hostile causes. 51% of US casualties were under 25 years old. 70% were from the US Army

Spent & Approved War-Spending - About $600 billion of US taxpayers' funds. President Bush has requested another $200 billion for 2008, which would bring the cumulative total to close to $800 billion.

U.S. Monthly Spending in Iraq - $12 billion in 2008
Cost of deploying one U.S. soldier for one year in Iraq - $390,000 (Congressional Research Service)

Lost & Unaccounted for in Iraq - $9 billion of US taxpayers' money and $549.7 milion in spare parts shipped in 2004 to US contractors.
Also, per ABC News, 190,000 guns, including 110,000 AK-47 rifles

Halliburton Overcharges Classified by the Pentagon as Unreasonable and Unsupported - $1.4 billion

Amount paid to KBR, a former Halliburton division, to supply U.S. military in Iraq with food, fuel, housing and other items - $20 billion

Portion of the $20 billion paid to KBR that Pentagon auditors deem "questionable or supportable" - $3.2 billion

Number of major U.S. bases in Iraq - 75 (The Nation/New York Times)

Now you know why Dick Cheny is smiling. Vote Democratic. Oooh Rah.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Those numbers are just sad and heart wrenching, but, at the same time, I was quite surprised that the whites were the ones who have lost their lives the most, this is indeed a different war than the Vietnam one, white it was blacks and Latinos.

As for voting Democratic, still on the fence, don't want the 100 year that McCain and Liberman want that can't be won and will bankrupt the country, but, at the same time, if its HRC, just can't see myself voting for her. What's a man to do??

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