The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict

Average Customer Rating: List Price: $22.95 Asia Trips Trips Price: $12.57 Your Savings: $ 10.38 ( 45% ) Subject To Change Without Notice Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 956.704431 EAN: 9780393067019 ISBN: 0393067017 Label: W. W. Norton Manufacturer: W. W. Norton Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 192 Publication Date: 2008-03-03 Publisher: W. W. Norton Studio: W. W. Norton
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Editorial Reviews: The true cost of the Iraq War is $3 trillion—and counting—rather than the $50 billion projected by the White House. Apart from its tragic human toll, the Iraq War will be staggeringly expensive in financial terms. This sobering study by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard professor Linda J. Bilmes casts a spotlight on expense items that have been hidden from the U.S. taxpayer, including not only big-ticket items like replacing military equipment (being used up at six times the peacetime rate) but also the cost of caring for thousands of wounded veterans—for the rest of their lives. Shifting to a global focus, the authors investigate the cost in lives and economic damage within Iraq and the region. Finally, with the chilling precision of an actuary, the authors measure what the U.S. taxpayer's money would have produced if instead it had been invested in the further growth of the U.S. economy. Written in language as simple as the details are disturbing, this book will forever change the way we think about the war.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: 3 Trillion Dollar War Comment: The book was originally shipped in a timely manner, yet it did not make it to me; I talked to a customer service rep who was happy to ship it to me via UPS. I am impressed with that; the product itself was in good condition and arrived quickly after I contacted customer service about the missing item. Customer Rating: Summary: A very important work, generally convincing Comment: I found the authors' cost accounting of the war convincing in everything except the war's supposed link to the rise in global oil prices. They fail to give any explanation of why the war should contribute significantly to the rise. But this failure does not detract from the power of the overall argument. If every US household had received an accurate monthly bill for this war from the start, support for it would have evaporated long ago. Customer Rating: Summary: Needs a Revision Comment: This book opened my eyes as to the business of this current war. However; given what has transpired with the global economy in just the past couple of weeks, I would like to see a revised, updated book that accounts for what influence, if any, the war with Iraq has played with the most current events. Customer Rating: Summary: A must read Comment: Great detailed analysis of the comprehensive cost of this war. 3 trillion is still conservative. Customer Rating: Summary: $3 trillion would have been cheap Comment: This book puts forth a lot of numbers and tries to put a price on certain things that should not have to have a price on it: such as the price of a human life. But it needs to happen because obviously this country does not value the lives of its soldiers. This book backs up the sentiment that veterans feel, that their life, sacrifices and the sacrifices of their family are for not. Stieglitz shows how our disabled veterans even if paid at the maximum rate, will not be compensated fully for the cost of their medical treatments even when the payments last a lifetime. This is not including the loss in their potential earnings because of their loss in productivity. Stieglitz goes even farther and shows how the loss of productivity to family members is not accounted for, because they have to take time off of work or even quit working to take care of their veteran. This work is a must read for everyone. It is a wake up call to all Americans, this war is going to cost us, but the cost should not be passed onto our veterans. Everyone that reads this book should at the very least call their representative and demand that they step up and take care of our veterans. More Reviews