Review: The three trillion dollar war PDF Print E-mail
Monday, 07 July 2008 18:50
Joseph E. Stiglitz & Linda J. Bilmes, The Three Trillion Dollar War. The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, Allen Lane
Stiglitz and Bilmes have trawled through information released under the Freedom of Information Act to assemble an astonishing array of facts and figures on the economic and human costs of the Iraq war. They explain in detail how the war in Iraq will cost, at a conservative estimate, three trillion dollars.
The value of this book is its simple, accessible breakdown of the costs of the Iraq war. The facts presented also help us to demolish any argument that the US government "can't afford" universal health care, or to remedy endemic poverty on its own streets.
The international anti-war movement needs all these facts, and the authors have done a fine job of presenting them. Stiglitz and Bilmes were opposed to the war from the beginning, and The Three Trillion Dollar War contributes to the campaign against it.
Both authors are, however, completely committed to the success of US capitalism. They both support the war in Afghanistan. So their contribution to the anti-war movement ends with Iraq - and at times, they come up with some absurd ideas.
In the fantasy land of Stiglitz and Bilmes, the Bush administration are blunderers who made a "mistake". If only they'd listened to Hans Blix, and had a good grasp of macroeconomics and accounting, they might have spent three trillion dollars on health care and education instead of tanks and bombs!
The authors are incapable of seeing what most people figured out years ago - that the US government and contractors in Iraq are not interested in helping the Iraqi people. Nor do those waging war care about US soldiers and veterans. They want to lie, steal and murder their way to world domination. Simple as that.
These basic flaws make the facts and stats the only real reason to read this book.
By Kate Jeffreys