During an eight-hour working day,
U.S. tax dollars spent in the battle zones of
Iraq total $112 million.
That translates into $333 million a day, $14 million an hour, $231,000 a minute and $3,850 a second.
It dwarfs what the United States is spending on efforts to alleviate the huge humanitarian crisis that unfolded after the 2003 invasion.
Opponents of the war have begun to focus on its high cost and stress what could be done with the dollars spent in Iraq -- improving American education and healthcare and fixing aging U.S. infrastructure.
The comparisons almost invariably center on things that could be done or bought in the United States for the benefit of Americans. Iraqis do not figure prominently in these analyses and the humanitarian disaster now unfolding is not much of a topic of discussion among Washington policy makers.
That, at times, dismays international aid officials who deal with the terrified multitudes who have fled waves of ethnic cleansing in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion. Around 2 million went to neighboring countries, mostly to Jordan, Syria and Egypt, by the count of international relief organizations. Another 2.2 million fled from their homes and sought refuge elsewhere in Iraq.
Improving conditions for these refugees would be cheap, measured against the cost of the war, but appeals for increased funds have fallen on deaf ears.
Of the $85 million appeal by the IOM, made in June -- by September, the organization had received $6 million. The shortfall, $79 million, would be covered by less than six hours of war spending.
[Excerpt of a Reuters article by Bernd Debusmann]
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