The epitome of ignorance

How can so much power be in the hands of one so deluded?

Bush is basically implying that the war on Iraq has nothing to do with the current despondent state of the U.S. economy. Is this some kind of joke?

US SPENDING IN IRAQ

Spent & Approved War-Spending – About $600 billion of US taxpayers’ funds. President Bush has requested another $200 billion for 2008, which would bring the cumulative total to close to $800 billion.

U.S. Daily Spending in Iraq – over $270 million, in November 2007

Cost of deploying one U.S. soldier for one year in Iraq – $390,000 (Congressional Research Service)

Lost & Unaccounted for in Iraq – $9 billion of US taxpayers’ money and $549.7 milion in spare parts shipped in 2004 to US contractors. Also, per ABC News, 190,000 guns, including 110,000 AK-47 rifles.

Missing – $1 billion in tractor trailers, tank recovery vehicles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and other equipment and services provided to the Iraqi security forces. (Per CBS News on Dec 6, 2007.)

Mismanaged & Wasted in Iraq – $10 billion, per Feb 2007 Congressional hearings

Halliburton Overcharges Classified by the Pentagon as Unreasonable and Unsupported – $1.4 billion

Amount paid to KBR, a former Halliburton division, to supply U.S. military in Iraq with food, fuel, housing and other items – $20 billion

Portion of the $20 billion paid to KBR that Pentagon auditors deem “questionable or supportable” – $3.2 billion

Click here for more statistical details on U.S. spending in Iraq.

So that brings the cumulative total to $800 billion, and if I were to be extremely generous and attribute a few BILLION to statistical errors, what’s left would still be an insane amount of money. And then there’s $9 billion of taxpayer’s money that went unaccounted for – mind you, the linked article was posted in 2005.