Blood and treasure
by kos
Mon Dec 13, 2004 at 09:32:23 AM PDT
The war cost in blood:
1,440 allied killedThe New England Journal of Medicine notes that 10 percent of wounded in action die -- the best survival rate in US military history. But the carnage is gruesome.
1,294 U.S. killed
2.27 killed per day
9,766 U.S. wounded in action
That picture is one of the tamest of the bunch. This soldier's vital organs were protected by his kevlar vest. The rest of his body was in considerable less luck. That casualties like this one survive these types of injuries is nothing short of miraculous.
Meanwhile, there's the cost in treasure. Nearly $150 billion and counting.
Twenty-one months after U.S. forces entered Iraq, the Defense Department is only now coming to terms with the equipment shortages caused by the prolonged fighting there. The Pentagon has prepared an unprecedented emergency spending plan totaling nearly $100 billion -- as much as $30 billion more than expected as recently as October -- say senior defense officials and congressional budget aides. About $14 billion of that would go to repairing, replacing and upgrading an increasingly frayed arsenal.
That's $100 billion more than the $150 billion already spent. And there's no letup in sight.
All of that money for a war that was supposed to have paid for itself through Iraqi oil revenues. - ::