What has cost 10 troop lives, 100 citizen lives and $1 billion? Answer: A lie.

A post on our favorite message board by lh beetle, reposted here because it is important for people to know this.


As we are approaching the second anniversary of the War on Iraq, this is only the current measurable status of each lie the Bush Administration told to America to justify the War. The War will cost Americans and the World much more. And this War has and will cost in ways we cannot measure yet.

I am performing this analysis on President’s Day, a day celebrating two Presidents that are known for their honesty, Washington and Lincoln. It dismays and disappoints me to no end that our current President and his Administration seem to take great cynical pride in misleading American Citizens. It is complete opposite of these two great Presidents’ legacies.

This is the method used to calculate the cost of each lie told by the Bush Administration. In the buildup of the Iraq Invasion, principles of the Administration made 161 misleading statements. The Special Investigations Division of the U.S. House of Representatives compiled a database of statements about Iraq made by President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary Don Rumsfeld, Secretary Colin Powell, and National Security Advisor Condi Rice. The misleading statements can be divided into four categories. The five officials made statements that claimed that Iraq posed an urgent threat; that exaggerated Iraq’s nuclear activities; that overstated Iraq’s chemical and biological weapon capabilities; and that misrepresented Iraq’s ties to al Taeda(1).

The database is summarized in the March 16, 2004, Iraq on the Record, The Bush Administration’s Public Statements on Iraq, United States House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform, Minority Staff, Special Investigations Division(1).

Based on information that has been exposed since the March 16, 2004, Iraq on the Record report, many if not all of these “misleading statements” were known to be basically lies when made. Only a lawyer, a politician or an apologist would think otherwise.

If these principles would have told the truth that Iraq did not pose an urgent threat; that Iraq nuclear activities were nil; that the chemical and biological weapons were thought to be mostly destroyed; and Iraq did not really have ties to al Qaeda, then we would not have invaded Iraq. There would have been no public support for the attack on Iraq(2,3,4,5,6).

Just imagine if the principles would have been honest about and promoted the work of the UN Inspectors. The Inspectors’ work proved to be successful. The Inspectors had requested more time, if given more time there would have been no war(7).

The Iraq lies are not the typical “white lies” that attempt to avoid a politician’s embarrassing personal behavior. Instead these lies have great impact. As of February 21, 2005, there has been documented or estimated:
1654 Military Fatalities (coalition forces)(8),
10740 Wounded in Action(8),
16,000-18,000 Iraqi Civilians reported killed by military intervention(9), and
$155 billion estimated currently spent on the War on Iraq by United States(10).

Therefore analyzing this information each lie cost:
10 Military lives,
67 Wounded in Action,
100 Iraqi civilians killed, and
$1 billion spent(11).

These are powerful lies.

Some of our fellow citizens seem to think it is okay to mislead people if the ends justify the means. I believe the morality of this war can be debated forever. But here is the best article I have read related to the morality (or lack thereof) of this war.
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20040531&s=savoy
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040531&s=savoy

This analysis should be shared. So if you too are outraged by this information or this analysis, please forward it to everyone you know. It needs to be debated wether you agree or not.

One last question, what would have happened to you if you lied and it cost 10 lives and $1billion? Would you have been fired or jailed? Maybe both?

Sincerely,
An Honest American

Reference Web Sites and Footnote
1. http://democrats.reform.house.gov/IraqOnTh..._record_rep.pdf, http://democrats.reform.house.gov/IraqOnTheRecord/
2. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,...,351165,00.html
3. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/09/08/ritter.iraq/
4. http://www.counterpunch.org/mcgovern06232003.html
5. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/14/...ain577975.shtml
6. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A...anguage=printer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?p...2¬Found=true
7. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,895882,00.html
8. http://icasualties.org/oif/
9. http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
10. http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar/index.html
11. For math ease I used an estimated $161 billion for the calculation. This is the estimated amount that will be spent by the Second Anniversary of the invasion, March 19, 2005. An estimated $6 billion above normal military budget is being spent each month on the War. This is a very conservative estimate.

Flash video of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/IMAGES/fallen2.gif
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/IMAGES/fallen.gif