Pentagon world's 10th largest economy. Iraq is America's 2nd costliest war. - NPR

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

"The sinews of war are infinite money." Marcus Tullius Cicero

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10098216

"Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says he wants $700 billion to fund the Pentagon and the war in Iraq. If he gets it, he will preside over the equivalent of the 10th-largest economy in the world. Gates explained the Pentagon's budget request to lawmakers Wednesday.

When considering all of the wars the United States has fought since the American Revolution, adjusting dollar amounts to 2007 figures, the money spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is the second-highest total in U.S. history, second to World War II.

"What are the prospects for having some light at the end of the tunnel?"

Gates answered, "I think the honest answer, Senator, is I don't know, but I would say this: I think I consider it my responsibility to give the president and the Congress an honest evaluation of whether the strategy is working or not in September."

[eppur_se_muova]

1. "Don't ask questions, just shut up and fork it over." nt

[PDJane]

2. The Pentagon is the world's largest single polluter, too......

And the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq are miserably and horribly polluted...with petrochemicals and DU and waste...since the war began. It is also dropping in depth, which is a disaster for the folks who rely on it.

Add that to the DU, the civilian deaths, the sectarian violence, the major drop in the status of women, and it starts to look as though the US owes Iraq at least what was spent on the war to try and repair some of the damage.

Can you say, "war crimes?"

[slipslidingaway]

3. K&R, "a theft from those who hunger..." ! n/t