About a year ago people estimated that the Iraq War was costing the American people $6 billion per month. That's a lot of cash. "According to current estimates, the cost of the Iraq War could exceed $700 billion. In current dollars, the Vietnam War cost U.S. taxpayers $600 billion." Think about this next time you are looking in the sofa cushions and under the car seat for gas money. So, said Rip Van Winkle after waking up from a long sleep, "How are things going?" Read the first two news bits and then keep reading for the surprise ending.

Iraq invasion a disaster, Blair admits

By George Jones, Political Editor
London Daily Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:28am GMT 19/11/2006

Tony Blair conceded last night that the invasion of Iraq by the United States and Britain had been a "disaster".

Tony Blair gave a frank assessment of the invasion of Iraq on al-Jazeera
His frankest assessment of the prospect that the country could descend into civil war came as Margaret Hodge, a long-standing political ally, was said to have described the conflict as Mr Blair's "big mistake in foreign affairs".

At a private meeting in London, Mrs Hodge, the industry minister, is reported to have accused him of "moral imperialism".

Interviewed yesterday on al-Jazeera television's new English-language channel, Mr Blair was challenged by Sir David Frost over the daily murders, bombings and kidnappings in Iraq.

Sir David said the West's military intervention, which has cost 2,858 American and 125 British lives, had been "pretty much of a disaster".

Mr Blair responded: "It has, [but] what I say to people is why is it difficult in Iraq? It is not difficult because of some accident in planning. It is difficult because there is a deliberate strategy — al-Qa'eda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other — to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war."

Kissinger: Iraq Military Win Impossible

By TARIQ PANJA
The Associated Press
Sunday, November 19, 2006; 4:45 PM

LONDON -- Military victory is no longer possible in Iraq, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said in a television interview broadcast Sunday.

Kissinger presented a bleak vision of Iraq, saying the U.S. government must enter into dialogue with Iraq's regional neighbors _ including Iran _ if progress is to be made in the region.

"If you mean by 'military victory' an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

But Kissinger, an architect of the Vietnam war who has advised President Bush about Iraq, warned against a rapid withdrawal of coalition troops, saying it could destabilize Iraq's neighbors and cause a long-lasting conflict.

Tony Blair, Bush's poodle, and Henry Kissenger, Mr. War himself, think the War in Iraq is going miserably. When you have a problem, what do you do? Well, what have the conservatives said liberals do when confronted with a social ill? Throw money at it.

Military may ask $127B for wars

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
November 16, 2006

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is preparing its largest spending request yet for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a proposal that could make the conflict the most expensive since World War II.

The Pentagon is considering $127 billion to $160 billion in requests from the armed services for the 2007 fiscal year, which began last month, several lawmakers and congressional staff members said. That's on top of $70 billion already approved for 2007.

Since 2001, Congress has approved $502 billion for the war on terror, roughly two-thirds for Iraq. The latest request, due to reach the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress next spring, would make the war on terror more expensive than the Vietnam War.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who will chair the Senate Budget Committee next year, said the amount under consideration is "$127 billion and rising." He said the cost "is going to increasingly become an issue" because it could prevent Congress from addressing domestic priorities, such as expanding Medicare prescription drug coverage.

Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., who put the expected request at $160 billion, said such a sizable increase still "won't solve the problem" in Iraq.

Bill Hoagland, a senior budget adviser to Senate Republicans, said: "At a minimum, they were looking at $130 (billion). If it goes higher than that, I'm not surprised."

The new request being considered for the war on terror would be about one-fourth what the government spends annually on Social Security — and 10 times what it spends on its space program.

The White House called the figures premature. "They don't reflect a decision by the administration," said budget office spokeswoman Christin Baker. "It is much too early in the process to make that determination."

Before the Iraq war began in 2003, the Bush administration estimated its cost at $50 billion to $60 billion, though White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey had suggested in 2002 that it could cost as much as $200 billion.

Growing opposition to the war contributed to Democrats' takeover of the House and Senate in this month's elections. Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, an early critic of the war who lost his bid Thursday to be the House Democratic leader, vowed to use his clout as chairman of the House panel that reviews the Pentagon budget "to get these troops out of Iraq and get back on track and quit spending $8 billion a month."

"The war's been an extraordinarily expensive undertaking, both in lives and in dollars," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

The new request is top-heavy with Army and Air Force costs to replace and repair equipment and redeploy troops, Hoagland said. That's why the 2007 cost is likely to top the war's average annual price tag.

Overall, he said, "we're easily headed toward $600 billion." That would top the $536 billion cost of Vietnam in today's dollars. World War II cost an inflation-adjusted $3.6 trillion.