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

Anyone will tell you, ‘Republicans are good for business.’ Especially for their own, it seems. I’ve already suggested the main campaign slogan for 2006 should be:

Republicans Mean Business

But I’m starting to appreciate Newt Gingrich’s own suggestion:

Had enough?

mjh

PS: Ask someone in the MSM how this could not be news in the US?

Independent Online Edition > Americas
Donald Rumsfeld makes $5m killing on bird flu drug
By Geoffrey Lean and Jonathan Owen
Published: 12 March 2006

Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease.

More than 60 countries have so far ordered large stocks of the antiviral medication – the only oral medicine believed to be effective against the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease – to try to protect their people. The United Nations estimates that a pandemic could kill 150 million people worldwide.

Daily Times – Site Edition
Donald Rumsfeld makes $5m from bird flu drug

Tamiflu does not cure the disease, but if taken soon after symptoms appear it can reduce its severity. The drug was developed by a Californian biotech company, Gilead Sciences. It is now made and sold by the giant chemical company Roche, which pays it a royalty on every tablet sold, currently about a fifth of its price.

Rumsfeld was on the board of Gilead from 1988 to 2001, and was its chairman from 1997. He then left to join the Bush administration, but retained a huge shareholding.

The firm made a loss in 2003, the year before concern about bird flu started. Then revenues from Tamiflu almost quadrupled, to $44.6m, helping put the company well into the black. Sales almost quadrupled again, to $161.6m last year. During this time the share price trebled.

Rumsfeld sold some of his Gilead shares in 2004 reaping – according to the financial disclosure report he is required to make each year – capital gains of more than $5m. The report showed that he still had up to $25m-worth of shares at the end of 2004, and at least one analyst believes his stake has grown well beyond that figure, as the share price has soared. Further details are not likely to become known, however, until Rumsfeld makes his next disclosure in May.

Rumsfeld Gilead – Google News (at this writing, only 6 news articles — these are the only 2 about this investment — none in the US)

Gilead — Donald H. Rumsfeld Named Chairman of Gilead Sciences
Foster City, CA, January 3, 1997

Scandal, job worries lift GOP insurgents to wins By STEVE EDER and JAMES DREW, BLADE STAFF WRITERS

The rising tide against Ohio’s Republican establishment on Tuesday swept away two of the party’s biggest names and scored a victory for GOP candidates who challenged business as usual in Columbus. …

That opening paragraph sounds so encouraging, speaking of insurgents and change within the Ohio Republican Party. But who is the number one “insurgent”? Ken Blackwell, current Ohio Secretary of State, who delivered Ohio for Bush and is riding a wave of evangelical support. In other words, the challenge is from the Radical Right — hardly a change of any kind. mjh

Republicans predicted that Democrats will focus on the scandal but fall short in providing plans for creating jobs and boosting the economy. [mjh: not one of the many scandals you’re thinking of]

John McClelland, a spokesman for the Ohio GOP, said the Democratic ticket is “woefully inexperienced” in comparison with the Republican nominees, who also include U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine and U.S. Rep. Bob Ney. [mjh: under investigation for involvement with Abramoff, Ney is very “experienced”.]

“[We] have longtime officeholders such as Mike DeWine who won handily, Betty Montgomery who won handily, Bob Ney won handily in his district, but at the same time you have agents of change such as Ken Blackwell, who has an agenda of growing the economy by cutting taxes, fiscal restraint, and government integrity and accountability,” Mr. McClelland said. “Those are issues that resonate across Ohio. Those are issues that Ken Blackwell is going to run on in November and issues we think we are going to win on.”

Actually, those are the issues Blackwell will run in public on. In private, among churchgoers, his campaign is completely different. mjh

Ohio 2004 election thief grabs Gov nod while (surprise! surprise!) voting machines malfunction