There is no longer any doubt that the Iraq War is a moral and strategic disaster for the United States. But what has not yet been fully recognized is that it has also been an economic disaster. According to the news, the government has spent more than $522 billion on the war, and the amount is still increasing date after date. I think that the government should use the money which spend in the war to have provided Medicaid-level health insurance for all 45 million Americans who are uninsured. What's more, we could have added more elementary and secondary schoolteachers. And we could have provided basic home weatherization for millions of existing homes, reducing energy consumption in these homes.
Spending on Iraq is also a job killer. According to the New York Times, "Every $1 billion spent on a combination of education, healthcare, energy conservation and infrastructure investments creates between 50 and 100 percent more jobs than the same money going to Iraq..." Taking the 2007 Iraq budget might be able to upward of 1 millions of jobs but the Bush Administration chose the Iraq sinkhole over public investment. Recognizing these costs of the Iraq War is even more crucial now that the economy is facing recession.
I think there are three important factors that help to create more job opportunites,
1. More jobs but lower-paying jobs.
2. More money stays within the US economy.
3. Stop the war immediately.
It is important to know which of these three factors is relatively more important in generating the overall increase in jobs.
Source: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/79988/
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