Thread: White House Promises to Bomb Ramadi Until City Retaken From ISIS

Originally Posted by Grant

So you didn't believe either Obama or Biden when they said Iraq was stable and sovereign, self-reliant, and a 'great achievement? Why do you suppose they were lying?

Whether they were lying, wishful thinking, or just throwing Bush a bone, I don't know. But it was wrong nevertheless. I see you ignored Powell's comments on Iraq under the leadership of Hussein.

Originally Posted by SouthernDemocrat

I totally agree with you there. It takes brutal dictatorships to have any kind of stability over there.

Yep, post 59

Originally Posted by matchlight

Thank you, I'm already familiar with Smedley Butler's career and views.

Too bad you don't agree with him very much.

Originally Posted by Born Free

But now Obama has gone back in to bomb the crap out of the palace and that is not working. Obama pulled out all the troops then started sending them back in, plus a bunch of planes. If we're not the worlds police what the hell is he doing going back into Iraq. Why did he go into Libya.

Because he sees us as the world's police. I don't. Which puts conservative hawks in such a mental quagmire in that they want what Obama's doing but can't actually allow themselves to agree with Obama on anything at the same time.

Originally Posted by Grant

No, it doesn't. Iraq was "stable" at one time and there was no 'brutal dictatorship' involved.FLASHBACK

Sure, when we had 150,000 troops there the country was relatively stable. I guess you wanted the United States to maintain that kind of troop presence in Iraq indefinitely.

Originally Posted by Trojan

You're drastically inflating your numbers, unless you have a source that says otherwise.

March 2003 to December 2011 is 104 months. 100 billion per month would be > ten trillion dollars, even though estimates say that the Iraq War cost us $2.19 trillion, or 6 trillion over four decades. CBO estimates placed the cost of "temporary occupation" at $1-$4 billion per month. More than the $210-$300 million it costs us to perform air operations in Syria and Iraq against ISIL each month now, but not nearly as astronomical as you're claiming. If we double the high-end ($4 billion), and spread that over a period of 5 years (60 months), that would be 59% of one year's total defense spending - $480 billion dollars.

You are right, somehow I had conflated the costs per year with the costs per month. The direct costs per year of our being in Iraq was around 100 billion a year or so.