Yeah, we broke it. (Mohammed Ameen/Reuters)
So much suck.
The death toll for U.S. forces is near 4,500; estimates of Iraqi fatalities vary wildly; 100,000 is a common figure. Some 32,000 Americans have been injured in hostilities. These numbers reflect human suffering of a magnitude not justified by the decision to go to war. That is an unavoidable, if brutal, fact.
That's the blood. In treasure, the war has already cost $1 trillion, at a time when the United States had other important uses for its money. When you add in future costs, such as ongoing debt service and healthcare costs for injured veterans, that figure will more than double, even if calculated very conservatively, according to political science professor Neta Crawford, coauthor of the "Costs of War" report from the Eisenhower Study Group at Brown University.
We also leave behind the most Iran-friendly government this side of Syria, particularly mocking neocon dreams of the Israel-friendly democratic government our blood and treasure would deliver.
And to add insult to injury, conservatives refused the entire time to pay for their war, and now demand austerity among the middle and lower class to pay for the debt it created. And along the way, we lost our moral high ground on torture and civil liberties.
Saddam Hussein is gone? He might've been gone anyway thanks to the Arab Spring.
And we're still stuck fighting a hopeless war in Afghanistan, while errant drones destroy our relationship with an unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan. Meanwhile, bloodthirsty Republican presidential pretenders clamor for more war, unhappy with the toll thus far.
What an incredible waste, and we're a long way from tallying up the overall cost.