What college student wouldn’t want to have their college education paid for?

Well, then think about this: Imagine taking the money spent on the war in Iraq to date and distributing an equal amount to each of the roughly 16 million college students in this country. If this were possible, then every single student would be able to afford a full year’s tuition at Rose-Hulman or four years of tuition at many public schools.

By taking into account incremental costs in both military and non-military sectors, one can determine a general estimate for the cost of the war in Iraq (plus or minus a few billion dollars). Incremental costs include only the costs above and beyond those that would apply during normal times. For example, a soldier’s regular pay is not included in the above total, but additional combat pay is included.

In addition, potential future costs are not included. As such, medical costs for future veterans are not included in the total. Also, since the war is being funded by increasing the national debt, the increase in interest will further inflate the cost of war; however, this has not been added to the cost either. When one totals all of the above information, the total cost of the war in Iraq weighs in at over $464 billion.

So what else could $464 billion buy? According to the National Priorities Project at http://nationalpriorities.org, that much money could buy over four million housing units for those without homes, pay for over eight million additional elementary school teachers for one school year, or provide insurance for almost three-hundred thousand children for a year.

And if $464 billion is too large of a number to consider, then what about $195 million? That’s an estimate of how much the war is costing the American taxpayer each day! That’s enough for three quarters of the Rose-Hulman population to receive a full ride for four years. Or, considering the rising prices of gasoline, one could provide a year’s worth of fuel for almost 100,000 Americans. Or, we could combat world hunger: $195 million could feed all of the starving children around the world-four times over!

Whether or not the initial reasons for going to war in Iraq were valid, the fact remains that the war has cost American taxpayers an incredible amount of money-money that could go to a number of other uses.



What could we buy instead of a war?

-$195 million Cost to American taxpayer each day we are in Iraq

-4.2 million: Amount of additional housing units that could be built in America

-8.1 million: Additional public school teachers that could be hired for one year

-61.6 million: Number of children that could attend a year of Head Start pre-schooling

-279 million: Number of children that could be insured for one year

-22.5 million: Students that could be provided a four-year scholarship at public universities