London’s Independent has spreadsheet version of the Iraq war to date. The piece bears a decidedly pessimistic view as evidenced by this extract –
There is no sign that the election for the 275-member Iraqi parliament this Thursday will end the fighting. The Sunni Arabs, the core of the insurrection, will vote for the first time, but there is no talk of a ceasefire. A leaflet issued by one resistance group in Baghdad yesterday encouraged its followers to vote but warned: “The fighting will continue with the infidels and their followers.”
If anyone doubts that Iraq is a complete debacle just look at some of these figures –
$204.4billion The cost to the US of the war so far. The UK’s bill up until March 2005 was £3.1 billion
2,339 Allied troops killed
98 UK troops killed
30,000 Estimated Iraqi civilian deaths
0 Number of WMDs found
8 per cent of Iraqi children suffering acute malnutrition
$35,819m World Bank estimated cost of reconstruction
What little global esteem the United States may have held was whittled at again when President Bush declared in his November 30, 2005 speech that America was on track for ‘complete victory’ in the never ending war on terror. The world is watching.
