2008 Woodie Awards
Bush botches war budget, billions could be spent better
Igor Volsky
Issue date: 10/14/04 Section: Opinion
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Two years ago, Hans Blix and his UNMOVIC team of international weapons inspectors were spending $80 million a year to contain the threat of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Instead of continuing the United Nations inspections, the United States chose to invade Iraq, at a cost of $80 billion a year. So far we have spent $150 billion in Iraq.
Meanwhile, our homeland remains unprotected. For instance, while we are spending billions in Iraq, this year the administration has allocated just $27 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, the bulk of which goes to the routine operations of agencies.
In Iraq, we spend $12.5 million each hour, $1.1 billion every four days, $8.4 billion each month. In the meantime, just $6 billion is needed for basic security upgrades in subway and commuter trains, equivalent to just 20 days of spending in Iraq. Three billion dollars is needed to equip all U.S. airports with machines that screen baggage for explosives, equivalent to 10 days of Iraq spending. Furthermore, experts estimate that $1.1 billion would pay for security upgrades at 361 ports, comparable to four days of Iraq spending.
The war and the reconstruction would have been justified if Saddam Hussein had not been complying with the weapons inspectors and the invasion was a last resort. But this of course was not the case.
For instance, on March 7, 2003 just before head weapons inspector Hans Blix was pulled out of Iraq, he said that "the Iraqi side has tried on occasion to attach conditions ... [but Iraq] has not, however, so far persisted in these or other conditions for the exercise of any of our inspection rights." In other words, Iraq was complying-it was disarming (at this very time, Blix and his team were destroying two Scud missiles that went beyond the permissible range).
And so, Hans Blix asked for three more months of inspections. President Bush refused. Now, after 1,071 American troops, 1,210 total coalition troops, and 13,000-15,000 Iraqi civilians have died, President Bush is rewriting history, claiming that he did in fact use war as a last resort and that Saddam Hussein was undermining the inspectors.
Meanwhile, our homeland remains unprotected. For instance, while we are spending billions in Iraq, this year the administration has allocated just $27 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, the bulk of which goes to the routine operations of agencies.
In Iraq, we spend $12.5 million each hour, $1.1 billion every four days, $8.4 billion each month. In the meantime, just $6 billion is needed for basic security upgrades in subway and commuter trains, equivalent to just 20 days of spending in Iraq. Three billion dollars is needed to equip all U.S. airports with machines that screen baggage for explosives, equivalent to 10 days of Iraq spending. Furthermore, experts estimate that $1.1 billion would pay for security upgrades at 361 ports, comparable to four days of Iraq spending.
The war and the reconstruction would have been justified if Saddam Hussein had not been complying with the weapons inspectors and the invasion was a last resort. But this of course was not the case.
For instance, on March 7, 2003 just before head weapons inspector Hans Blix was pulled out of Iraq, he said that "the Iraqi side has tried on occasion to attach conditions ... [but Iraq] has not, however, so far persisted in these or other conditions for the exercise of any of our inspection rights." In other words, Iraq was complying-it was disarming (at this very time, Blix and his team were destroying two Scud missiles that went beyond the permissible range).
And so, Hans Blix asked for three more months of inspections. President Bush refused. Now, after 1,071 American troops, 1,210 total coalition troops, and 13,000-15,000 Iraqi civilians have died, President Bush is rewriting history, claiming that he did in fact use war as a last resort and that Saddam Hussein was undermining the inspectors.