According to an article published by McClatchy Newspapers (http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington//17158295.htm), $500 billion could pay for:
A college education - tuition, fees, room and board at a public university - for about half of the nation's 17 million high-school-age teenagers.
Pre-school for every 3- and 4-year-old in the country for the next eight years.
A year's stay in an assisted-living facility for about half of the 35 million Americans age 65 or older.Instead, that's what the Iraq War is costing us.


WASHINGTON (http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington//17158295.htm) - The bitter fight over the latest Iraq spending bill has all but obscured a sobering fact: The war will soon cost more than $500 billion.

That's about ten times more than the Bush administration anticipated before the war started four years ago, and no one can predict how high the tab will go. The $124 billion spending bill that President Bush plans to veto this week includes about $78 billion for Iraq, with the rest earmarked for the war in Afghanistan, veterans' health care and other government programs.

Congressional Democrats and Bush agree that they cannot let their dispute over a withdrawal timetable block the latest cash installment for Iraq. Once that political fight is resolved, Congress can focus on the president's request for $116 billion more for the war in the fiscal year that starts on Sept. 1.

The combined spending requests would push the total for Iraq to $564 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
Is it money well spent? Was it worth it?

You have uncovered exactly why the democrats want the war over and done.

They want money to add and expand welfare programs. When you are fighting a war, welfare programs have to take a back seat. That fact drives every democrat insane.

Free college would be great if 80% of students went to college to better themselves and prepare for a real job. Unfortunately, most people go college to party. They blow though millions in financial aid packages so they can party every night.

Preschool lessons could be accomplished in the home. Better yet, people could wait to conceive children until they can support themselves. Millions of children are born everyday to parents that cannot even feed and house themselves. The technology exists to curb pregnancy until we are mature and financially ready for children; however, we do not use it because it ruins the experience.

Subsidized assisted living would not be needed if we as society took better care of ourselves and saved a little money for tomorrow. Instead, we need $3000 plasma TV's, expensive luxury cars and we have to blow thousands of dollars to vacation in the Caribbean. Not that there is anything wrong with those things but you should put money aside for the future. You never know when illness will strike. There are even insurance policies available to protect us when we cannot work. Do many people use them? No, they do not.

The government needs to make the effort make every person self-sufficient instead turning every person into a dependent leech.

It's clear that you feel that war-making is money well spent. Death and destruction ranks higher for you than education and care for seniors.

You don't want the government spending money on social programs. I don't want the government spending money on ill-advised preemptive military action that leads to a quagmire with no end in sight. It's a difference philosophy on the role of the government.

Cheeseburger, I'll ask a simple question. If you had a choice between spending $500 billion on the war, or investing $500 billion in our Nation, what would you do and why?

I'd rather the US spend $500 billion in the US, of course. Going to Iraq had nothing to do with national security. If national security was any concern of the Bush cabinet, we would have secure borders. Iraq was all about money for Bush and his friends. There are too many conflicts of interest for me to think otherwise.

You know what sucks? 200 years ago, our fathers chose to create state governments because they feared the repercussions of a central government becoming too powerful. The Declaration of Independence allowed the people of the United States to overthrow that government and substitute another in it's place if that government became to powerful and didn't act in the best interest of the people. Our government is one that is supposed to be controlled by the people, not a government that controls the people. What do you think would happen if someone tried to lead a revolt against the government? He'd be labeled a terrorist and assassinated on the spot. We the people, no longer live in freedom granted to us by our fathers.

Do we really live in a democracy? If the people of America all stood up and demanded we leave Iraq, do you think we would? I think the answer is no. Our President has no concern for the people he's supposed to represent. That is not democracy.

National Priorities Project - Cost of War (http://costofwar.com)

It's a very interesting site. It has the rolling cost for the war and compares it to what we could have spent the money on. It also has Oklahoma's share of the cost and Oklahoma City's. OKC's share alone is over $983 million.