Cost of Iraq War

Most people know the Iraq War is expensive. Tens of billions of dollars a year. I've read 8 billion dollars a month. Sounds about right. So that is:

$2 billion a week
$267 million a day
$11 million an hour

This of course doesn't include the human and societal costs. The big question of course is whether spending all that money is making us safer today. Being a big bleeding heart liberal, I would argue NO. I wonder what else we could be doing with that kind of money.

The UK Guardian has an article which claims the winner of the "War on Terror" is Iran.

The study said Iran had been swift to fill the political vacuum created by the removal of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The Islamic republic now has a level of influence in the region that could not be ignored.

In particular, Iran has now superseded the US as the most influential power in Iraq, regarding its former adversary as its "own backyard". It is also a "prominent presence" in its other war-torn neighbour, Afghanistan, according to Chatham House's analysts.

The report said: "There is little doubt that Iran has been the chief beneficiary of the war on terror in the Middle East.