Cost of War in Iraq: Another estimate

"The US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will cost taxpayers $ 4 trillion to $ 6 trillion, taking into account the medical care of wounded veterans and expensive repairs to a force depleted by more than a decade of fighting".  This according to a Harvard University researcher.  The researcher-Linda Bilmes-said that Washington "increased military benefits in 2001...seeking to quickly bolster its talent pool and extend its ranks".  We have spend $ 2 trillion already but the rest will be the ultimate "price tag".

(Source:  "Wars may cost public as much as $ 6 trillion" by the Washington Post.  No author noted.  Printed in The Record on 3/29/13).

US war in Iraq

Special Inspector General to Congress issue his final report on the war in Iraq and questions whether the effort and cost were "worth the cost".  Stuart Bowen's report says "the US has spent too much money in Iraq for too few results".  It would seem the problem was the "misspending of money" according to PM Nouri al-Maliki.  In March of 2003 "Congress set up a $ 2.4 billion fund to help ease the sting of war for Iraqis.  It aimed to rebuild Iraq's water and electricity systems, provide food, health care and governance for its people; and take care of those who were forced from their homes in the fighting".  Six months after this funding Bush II asked for another $ 20 billion.  To date we have spent "more than $ 60 billion in re-construction grants to help Iraq..."  That's about $ 15 million a day.  Counting all military and diplomatic costs the other aid, the US has spent at least $ 767 billion since the invasion.  A US research group-National Priorities Project-estimates that the cost is $ 811 billion.  A GOP senator-Susan Collins-says Bush II should have given the aid as a "loan instead of an outright gift".

(Source:  "Report: America's time and $ 60 billion wasn't worth it in Iraq" by Lara Jakes of The Associated Press.  In the Virginian Pilot on 3/6/13)

World War II era

I came across the following items while reading the magazine The Week.  

First, in the book review of The Girls of Atomic City: The untold story of the women who helped win World War II by Denise Kiernan by Touchstone publishers.  The women were "young secretaries, chemists, and technicians" that were part of Oak Ridge, Tenn. working on the Manhattan Project.  The women  who were technicians "monitored panels of dials and never realized that they were enriching uranium", finally received the news of the bombing of Hiroshima, some were proud of the part they played and some felt "pride often mixed with shame and guilt".  I found this line interesting and as the reviewer wish for more details.  "A brief mention of an injured black worker who became a human guinea pig for radiation's effect on the body left this reader wanting more".  (Source:  Review in The Week for 4/19/13 on page 22).

In the same issue of The Week is a note about an internment camp for Japanese Americans in Heart Mountain Wyoming that was "packed with makeshift buildings on a patch of desert here that was ringed by barbed wire", is one of only two such camps open to visitors.  There is a web site for information, heartmountain.org.  The writer of the article in The Week states "the internees faced grueling conditions.  Multiple families shared tiny barracks with communal toilets, and when winter's sub-zero temperatures arrived, gaps in the walls let in cold winds".  As the writer says the climate conditions were "...almost as cruel  to these individuals as their government".  (I have always been amazed that our government could expect draft age men to volunteer for the armed forces while their parents faced these conditions.  Also that many such men did volunteer.

The third item I came across was a note about a PBS program that stated that during WWII "British intelligence planted listening devices among German POW's netting both military secrets and a glimpse of the Nazi's dark soul" (Source:  "Secrets of the Dead: Bugging Hitler's Soldiers".  In The Week 5/3/13)

Lyndon B. Johnson and Billy Sol Estes

I came across a pretty far-out political accusation about LBJ in a obit article about Billy Sol Estes.  Estes was a "fast talking Texas swindler", a preacher and someone who had contact with a number of famous American politicians in the 1960's.  He was convicted as a swindler and spent time in jail.  In 1953 the US Chamber of Commerce named Estes "one of America's 10 outstanding young men".  He died recently at the age of 88.  I found this line in the obit interesting and certainly troubling if true.  "Many of his statements were self-serving and never proved-particularly allegations about Johnson.  Estes said he had given millions to Johnson, and that Johnson had ordered seven killings disguised as suicides or accidents to cover up his connections to the frauds and had then set up the assassination of Kennedy in 1963 to become president".  The obit notes that he was convicted of federal charges in 1963 and sentenced to 15 years in prison, was paroled in 1971 and convicted of tax fraud in 1979 sending him back to prison.  Bizarre claims, to say the least, but could there be any truth behind them?

(Source:  " Texas swindler made millions and captivated millions" by Robert D. McFadden of the New York Times.  In the Virginian Pilot on 5/15/13.

Stockholm Syndrome and Mark Twain

I know we have all heard about situations in which a person held as a hostage may-in some cases-bond with their captors.  Wikipedia.org defines the Stockholm Syndrome as follows;  "in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors".  I was surprised when recently I was reading Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer-the 1922 edition.  On page 273 Tom and Huck talk about being pirates and taking hostages.  They would kill the men but keep the women.  Twain then notes that "Well, the women get to loving you, and after they've been in the cave a week or two weeks they stop crying and after that you couldn't get them to leave.  If you drove them out they'd turn right around and come back. It's so in all the books".

Presidency of George W. Bush

An editorial in the newspaper, The Record, makes an effort to review the good and bad points of the administration of George W. Bush-the 43rd President of the US.  

On the positive side are the following points.  1) credit for education reform done with the help of Senator Ten Kennedy.  2) brought peace to Sudan.  3) made an effort to fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa.  4) after the attack on 9/11 he built a coalition of countries to support the US going into Afghanistan.  

On the negative side are the following points.  1) "an unnecessary war on Iraq "that has cost billions...and much human lose of life and instability in the region".  2) civil liberties have been "abridged".  3) our nation has been "embarrassed" by our treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the "indefinite detention" of suspected terrorists at Gitmo Bay.  4) the news black out of returning coffins from the wars in the Middle East.  5) the Clinton era "good times" he inherited were lost and the federal deficit grew.  6) the economy failed and the gap between the rich and poor "widened".  

Bush tried to bring about immigration reform but failed due to his own party going against him.  There are also issues that will take historians some time to figure out, but " for now, the Bush legacy is not a good one".  That might change after years of review.

(Source:  "Bush in Stone: 43rd president's legacy is unknown".  An Editorial in The Record on 4/27/13). 

Miranda Warning

In 1966 the US Supreme Court issued the Miranda warning thru the case of Miranda v. Arizona, as we all know.  What I did not know or had not thought about was the non-absolute nature of the warning.  In the case of New York v. Quarles in 1984 the court issued the "public safety exception" to the Miranda warning. I read of this recently in the case of the Boston police questioning suspects in the marathon race bombing there of late.  In the Quarles case a police officer arrested a man in a near deserted supermarket who was wearing a shoulder holster for a hand gun but the holster was empty.  After handcuffing the man the officer asked where the gun was and the suspect indicated its location.  This happened before he was given the Miranda warning but the court stated that the statement by the suspect about the gun could be used in court. In 2010 in the Berghuis v. Thompkins case the Supreme Court stated that the suspect "must state he is relying on this right" or any statement made can be used.

(Source: an article in the Virginian Pilot on 5/3/13 on an internet search re Wikepedia)