Iraq 101: The Cost - Paying the Price

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Thu Mar. 1, 2007 1:00 AM PST

A Charge to Keep
The war costs American taxpayers $1.9 billion a week, or $275 million a day. If the U.S. had not invaded, militarily containing Saddam through 2015 would have cost an estimated $23 million a day.

Fables of the Reconstruction
In April 2003, the head of usaid said the cost of rebuilding Iraq wouldn’t “even compare remotely with the size of the Marshall Plan.” Iraqi reconstruction has cost the United States $34.1 billion to date. Rebuilding postwar Germany cost $30.3 billion (in 2006 dollars).

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And How Many Rooftop Helipads?

A Tour of the New U.S. Embassy in Baghdad

With a staff of nearly 1,000, it’s already the largest U.S. embassy in the world.
When the new Green Zone complex is completed later this year, it will include 15-foot-thick walls, its own water-treatment and power plants, and amenities such as a gym, a swimming pool, a food court, a movie theater, and an “American Club” for cooped-up diplomats.

Pipe Dreams: Iraq’s Energy Crunch
In 2003, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said oil exports would rebuild Iraq “relatively soon.” But last year, Iraq missed its export goal by nearly 1/3 and spent only $2 billion on reconstruction, while the U.S. spent $5.4 billion. Baghdad gets an average of 4 hours 30 minutes of electricity a day. Estimated cost of boosting Iraq’s power capacity by 2010: $20 billion. Estimated cost of installing enough solar panels to power every home in Iraq: $6.6 billion. (Click image to enlarge)