Independent Online Edition > Americas
Iraq war set to be more expensive than Vietnam
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 28 April 2006

The Iraq war has already cost the United States $320bn (£180bn), according to an authoritative new report, and even if a troop withdrawal begins this year, the conflict is set to be more expensive in real terms than the Vietnam War, a generation ago.

The estimate, circulated this week by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), can only increase unease over the US presence in Iraq, whose direct costs now run at some $6bn a month, or $200m a day, with no end in sight.

That’s a full $2.2 billion since this article was published. Well, that’s inflation for you.

The real war loonies will quote figures on deaths. Many of today’s battlefield injuries would have been fatal 40 years ago. How long before the number of seriously wounded surpasses Vietnam? Don’t expect anyone to tell you.

I still seethe that the Radical Right jumped all over Kerry/Edwards for “lying” that the war’s cost was $200 Billion. Lying? It was a gross underestimate. mjh