How do we justify spending billions in Iraq when our people, schools, roads and bridges need more funds?
462906
we have an idiot in our white house that has no clue what he's doing. None of his "plan" is justifiable. Its a war for oil, not peace. A power hungry village idiot (Somewhere In Texas a Village is Missing It's Idiot, best bumper sticker i've seen about this cause) came up with the brilliant plan that we could dispose of WOMD in iraq. Which basically brings us to good and them to not. It was pointless from the point that we found no WOMD. Anyway, it proved to be damn near impossible so we turned it into a reformation mission. We tried to reform the government yadda yadda yadda. Well we went over there to find WOMD. We didnt. We found a guy in a hole. Big woo. So now there is absolutely no reason for us to be in iraq. We accomplished all the things bush set out in the beginning. Now its just ridiculous. We're over there fighting for some retarded cause that a texan oil junkie idiot decided we absolutely needed to work for. Jay Leno put it right when he said "We are now down to the final 4. I'm not talking about basketball, i'm talking about how many people still think george bush is doing a good job."
240599
One thing to keep in mind is that anytime money is spent on war it is usually in the form of debt.  Wars are paid for by borrowing money, or by raising taxes.  Neither one of these is desirable.  Eventually someone has to pay for the war.  Just because we spend the money on war does not necessarily mean that that same money would have gone to the poor or other social programs.\n\nGeneral MacArthur summed it up by saying:  "The powers in charge keep us in a perpetual state of fear, keep us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.”\n\nActually, the US gives more than just financial donations.  It provides military presence.  It provides the ability to trade through free trade agreements.  It provides benchmarks for other countries to follow the lead.\n\nThe US does give the highest dollar amount than any other country in the world.\n\nSee the supporting source for an in depth report on how the US aids other countries relative to the rest of the world.
246199
cant that money be used for some better cause and purpose
860074
Seriously they don't need to spend the money. It would be better used for social programs. Feed the hungry, clothe the poor housing, etc.
209294
Spend it, for sure. I have a lot of needs, but not the funds, yet.
1062277
idc what trump thinks, but i never wanted to be in Iraq in the first place. so we should definitely get out now, it's wasting too much of our money that we could be spending to better home life.
596940
Whether the US-Guv created Al-Kye-duh or not, it sure has made it easier to justify increased military spending, hasn't it?  Just another way for the rich to get richer, and in the process, turn the entire world against the good, hard-working people who live in the United States.  This justifies increased defense spending, and it goes on and on from there...
702322
Because they don't want the American people to know exactly how much money the US is spending on the war and what they are spending it on.  I saw a "60 Minutes" story about how the US has "misplaced" $800 million in Iraq....
577964
I have to agree that we aren't doing the right thing by waging wars we can't 1) afford, 2) justify, 3) support as a nation. We spend $100 Mil in Iraq, why?  Why even go over there?  \n\nLet's spend that amount of money on improving the New Orleans levies, AIDS research, Cancer research, improving the welfare system so people can't take advantage of it, create more scholarships for people of ALL races, improving ghettos, law enforcement for larger cities, redesigning FEMA, lessen the national debt, put up a wall between us and Mexico, etc.  \n\nLet's go into countries that actually pose a threat to us or someone else.  There are several African countries that have worse leaders than Hussein that we could go into.  We could send the same number of troops we sent to Iraq to actually find Osama - he and all of Al Qaeda are much more dangerous to us than Saddam.  If the UN don't think we should go to another country we shouldn't go.  That's why the UN exists.  \n\nMost Americans were for us going into Afghanistan, but about half were against Iraq, another 10% or so didn't have an opinion.  Why was I against it?  1) there were no weapons of mass destruction that we could prove, 2) we still haven't found Osama, 3) Saddam is a butt hole but there are worse leaders in this world than him,  4) They posed no threat to us. \n\nI think that our military should be protecting us not starting fights with everyone.  Our economy is weak, no matter what the numbers look like, it is unstable at best.  We are losing the technology battle.  We don't do well making cars.  We need to get people with oil interests out of Washington.  So yes, we are destroying ourselves and the military is leading the effort.
647366
The answer is no.  This country is in bad shape.  Millions of people are considered at a poverty level, and here we are spending all the nations money on Iraq.  Bush is just trying to finish what his father started.  We need to focus on the American peoples well being before Iraq.  If he wants to worry about something he need to put the troops in Afganistan (or however it is spelled) where the real threat is.
967579
You have a great idea!\nBut then we would not be able to build a bridge to know where for around the cost of a Billion Dollars.\nWe would also have to cut aide to Israel from 4 Billion to like 2 Billion. That would not be fair.\nThen Israel would start nagging on the US more and get us involved in more use less wars where we would spend Trillions of Dollars
774158
It has cost us billions, but I have been told by our administration that it is worth every penny because we have a democratic Iraq. But I sure miss the days when our priorities were social security for our aging grandparents, affordable health insurance, education for our children, creating good paying jobs, cheap gas, and the support of down and out Americans. Now, I can only imagine what it would be like if the USA had no deficit and our money had stayed home to invigorate and protect our quality of life.  (sigh!)
811273
They should put it on pay per view for $250. Millions of people around the globe would watch. The Iraqi government could use that money to train and equip their troops, opening the way for U.S. troops to leave.
751857
Bush has requested Billions of dollars in funds for Iraq sometime ago. Most of those funds went to the military. I guess Gordon Brown wanted a fund program that is more specific to Iraq's economy.
37156
The war was supposed to cost 10 billion dollars and will end up costing between 1 and 2 trillion so I would say that unless Iraq ends up looking like the emerald city of OZ and the terrorists all apologize on national TV every superbowl sunday, that it was not worth it.\n\nOh yeah, and lots of people died for no reason.
771037
Yes we deserve affordiable health care and drug coverage.  As you say we send billions of dollars to other countries and leave us here back home to dig up enough money for a $75 pill.  Bush stated that he would send billions over to Iraq to aid everyone there to get the health care they need....huh???  What about us.\nWe bring people over here from other countries to have surgeries they cannot get in their countries and they get it for free because we feel sorry for them...huh??? What about the people holding bake sales to help a child in the neighborhood get a heart transplant.\nI could go on an on....rant rant.
859588
Who the hell knows, but we do need to do something.  This war is not working out the way we expected.  We have spent 1/2 trillion and we are making enemies faster than we can kill them.