The administration asked the congress for 65 billion for two years of war and the congress gave it.
Of course it's going to cost twice as much- everything the government does costs twice as much as they claim it will.
Right now nearly everything is running ahead of schedule. By the anniversary of the war there should be a reasonably clear understanding of what the future holds in Iraq.
Ron Paul is a man of the Republic, and I respect him enough that I would like to go to his distsrict and get to know the people who elected him.
Think of the Delian league, and the financial problems that plagued and then hamstrung Rome. Think of the English Empire, so recent in time, that collapsed after England no longer had technological and economic supremacy, and could no longer afford the cost of Empire.
An Empire is like grabbing a tiger by the tail, you don't dare let go, and you go wherever the tiger wants.
Me, I'm a man of the Republic, but putting the Republic back together is desired only by a minority. Moving from the present political order to one that rejects Empire would cause economic and political upheaval here in the USA. Israel would be lost, and Arab Nationalism unchecked, and the whole oil zone would be dominated by Saddam Hussein look alikes all in love with their long range missiles, near Earth space systems of offense and defense, and their nuclear weapons.
Iraq will cost more like $100 Billion a year than what is talked about now, and this much money will not be enough to get the job done right. For the "Iraq" program to work, we will have to stay in the Middle East with overwhelming military superiority until we are pushed out by war.
Shucks, guys, I've been laying the cards out on the table for everyone to see about this business for years here on Freerepublic, and to anyone who will listen. There are ways other than Empire, and they are really pretty easy to do, but they are not popular, certain elites and interests are hostile to the existing program changing, "standard of living" would drop badly over the short term, etc.
As I understand it, Iraq will be using the revenues from its oil to fund a substantial part of this. I think people are forgetting this (on purpose?)
Actually a more likely scenario is for the Chinese, or even the Russians, or, believe it or not, the Germans and French, to move in to dominate the oil producing regions. Too much power and money is at stake.
NO. We are just holding the fort until the massive crash-course training of hundreds of thousands Iraqis in American-style template civics, law enforcement, and sociology. And that had better be the plan. AND it had better be sooner rather than later...
If the evidence suggests the Iraqi people themselves can't or won't make personals committments toward maintaining a free Iraq, then why the h#ll should America continue play Mommy and Daddy? We have further "aisle clean-ups" to attend to around the world...