Today the AP ran a story about the staggering medical costs from the Iraq war. The VA is trying to provide some estimates as to the future cost to care for the Iraq War Veterans. The VA has run out of money several times during the past two years and the spending is up 83% since Bush took office.
There have been 185,000 veterans that have required care so far and the VA fears that number could reach 700,000 and span 50 Plus years. The experience from this war is different because of the type of fighting and the fact that many veterans that in other wars would have died on the battle field have been saved. The extraordinary new combat medical care has managed to save the lives from combat injuries and will add to the long term care of these veterans.
The cost to care for the Iraq war vets could total $700 BILLION dollars per the most recent estimates. That is as much as we have spent so far on fighting the war. If the war continues as Bush wants, the final cost will go even higher then this $700 Billion Dollar estimate.
There are other estimates that say the cost of the war itself, the replacement of destroyed equipment plus the medical costs of our veterans could drive the total cost of the Iraq War to $2 TRILLION Dollars! That cost will be paid by the taxpayers for a war that did not need to be fought and that has made our country less safe from terrorism. Bush and Cheney told us that the cost of the Iraq War would be in the $50 Billion dollar range. An analyst in the pentagon that said the real cost could reach as high as $200 Billion was fired for contradicting the Bush estimate of $50 Billion.
Here is a perfect example why I have said the harm Bush has done to America will last for decades to come!