Since the beginning of the war in Iraq 3,900 military members from the United States have died. Tax payers have shelled out $500 billion and climbing to fund the effort. Joseph E. Stiglizt, Nobel Prize winning economist and finance expert Linda Bilmes estimate that the war cost total will even out at $3 trillion.
“The successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable, yet some in Washington still call for retreat,” the president said. “War critics can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq, so now they argue the war costs too much. In recent months, we have heard exaggerated estimates of the costs of this war.
“No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure, but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq,” Bush said.
Since 2003 at least 82,240 Iraqi civilians have perished. 7% of the adult male Iraqi population have been killed. On average a thousand Iraqis died on every single day of the first half of 2006.
Out of such chaos in Iraq, the terrorist movement could emerge emboldened with new recruits … new resources … and an even greater determination to dominate the region and harm America,” Bush said in his remarks. “An emboldened al-Qaida with access to Iraq’s oil resources could pursue its ambitions to acquire weapons of mass destruction to attack America and other free nations. Iran could be emboldened as well with a renewed determination to develop nuclear weapons and impose its brand of hegemony across the broader Middle East. And our enemies would see an American failure in Iraq as evidence of weakness and lack of resolve.”
Badr Brigade is the largest known active terrorist group in Iraq. They are led by Grand Ayotollah al-Sistani.
A $7 million dollar contract was awarded to KBR, a part of Halliburton, to construct and run military bases. KBR was tasked to plan oil well firefighting in 2002 within Iraq. In February, 2008, a hard disk and two computers containing classified information were stolen from Petrobras while in Halliburton’s custody. Allegedly, the content inside the stolen material, was data on the recently discovered Tupi oil field. The former President Bush and Dick Cheney have both been affiliated with Halliburton.
Looking back, Bush said, “Five years into this battle, there is an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting … whether the fight is worth winning … and whether we can win it. The answers are clear to me: Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision and this is a fight America can and must win.”
The terrorists who murder the innocent in the streets of Baghdad want to murder the innocent in the streets of American cities. Defeating this enemy in Iraq will make it less likely we will face this enemy here at home,” Bush said.
U.S. strikes have killed an estimated 40,000 Iraqi civilians in the five years of war. From March 2003 to April 2004 30,000 bombs rained down on the mostly urbanized country. 240,000 cluster bombs were used.
The other half of the deaths have happened from bombings and uprising with militants that use the guise of the war to terrorize the people.
In Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his terror network. And the significance of this development cannot be overstated ,” the president said.
“The challenge in the period ahead is to consolidate the gains we have made and seal the extremists’ defeat. We have learned through hard experience what happens when we pull our forces back too fast — the terrorists and extremists step in, fill the vacuum, establish safe havens and use them to spread chaos and carnage.”
In war torn Iraq there are no safe havens. The people are worse off today than they were 5 years ago. Humanitarian groups describe the country as being a crisis of huge proportions with little reason for hope. The Red Cross filed a report stating that civilians continue to be killed in the armed hostilities. That medical care is inadequate for those wounded. Water and sewage are of poor quality. Women are victimized if they are not attired in Islamic dress.
It’s been said that war is Hell. Hell has a new address, Iraq.
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