Iraq war may cost US USD 7 trillion

When US troops invaded Iraq in March 2003, the Bush administration predicted that the war would be self-financing and that rebuilding the nation would cost less than USD 2b, but [Joseph] Stiglitz estimates that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing America more than USD 3 trillion.

That estimate from the Noble Prize-winning Sttiglitz also serves as the title of his new book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War", which hits store shelves Friday.

As Ralph Nader points out, it should be incredibly easy to blow the Republicans out of the water, yet this incredible and vile waste of our money is not even an issue in the Presidential campaign.

That's how effectively fear -- and the bread and circuses of which it is a part -- is used to keep people in line, including would-be reformers seeking high office.

Our two-party electoral system itself is mostly bread and circuses -- red meat to make us fear and hate others, while trillions of dollars from the public treasury are devoted exclusively to corporate cronyism. I applaud Ralph Nader, the Greens, and the Libertarians (and Joseph Stiglitz) for making that point abundantly clear.