Four Years On...
Today is the 4th Anniversary of the 2nd Gulf War.I'm not a pacifist - I strongly support our Armed Forces and do not believe that ALL wars are unjustified or immoral..
..but this one is.
To date, the death toll in Iraq reads as follows:
British Forces: 133
US Forces: 3,200
Iraqi Nationals: ???,000 (an estimated minimum of 56,000 to date)
The war is costing the US Government somewhere close to $200 Million USD a day, or $6 Billion USD a Month.
By the end of this fiscal year (September 2007) the US will have spent somewhere in the region of $456 Billion USD on Iraq.
Some analysts estimate the final cost to the US will be close to $2.5 Trillion USD (when long term expenditure such as ongoing care for those wounded in battle is factored in).
Figures for the UK don't seem to be so readily available, but the MOD estimates that we will have spent over £5 Billion GBP by the end of this financial year. That only allows for direct costs (ie fuel, ammunition, repairs to equipment etc) and doesn't include caring for wounded Service personnel.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, and a lot of the true costs haven't yet become apparent. One that impacts on our daily lives is all too obvious though - the price of Oil.
Every time you fill up your car with petrol, you can thank TB and Dubya for the extra pounds or dollars you're paying. The instability caused by the Gulf War conflict is largely to blame for the stratospheric rise in the price of Brent Crude.
These massive costs, human and fiscal, don't seem to have achieved too much either - at least not in my opinion. For instance:
Did we find WMD and did we prevent Saddam from using it?
Have we made life more tolerable for the majority of the Iraqi population?
Have we brought stability to the region as a whole?
Have our country's interests been furthered?
Have we prevented the use of torture in Iraq?
Are we now more secure than we were in 2003?
So many human lives have been sacrificed, and so much of our money spent, for so little - for a war so unjustified and immoral that 'evidence' had to be fabricated to get the support of Parliament.
What a great legacy for Tony to leave behind.
posted by Just... Why? @ 1:57 pm
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