I shall not get into an argument with Arto and Dante, who for legitimate reasons of their own feel that the US should not be in Iraq (I happen to disagree with them, but respect their opinions).
But let us not confuse the budgetary issues. Numbers can be played with to any purpose. There is an operational cost to any military unit. It costs millions a day to operate a nuclear aircraft carrier (such as the Abraham Lincoln), and all the other ships in its battle group. The sailors have to be fed, the equipment maintained, etc. And that is the same whether they are in battle or on a rescue mission or just doing peaceful excercises. Those costs are attributed to the operation they are on, whatever it may be. So when the costs of a war are stated all those fixed costs are allocated to it, just as in a rescue operation. All the costs of that battle group sent in for humanitarian rescue are not in the US pledge, they are in the military budget. A helicopter delivering food to survivors uses the same amount of fuel as one delivering missiles in battle. The carrier delivering that helicopter to the scene uses the same fuel and has the same number of men being paid their salaries. The difference between the cost of war and the cost of peace (neglecting the extreme cost, but not assessable, of loss of life) is only the ammunition expended and the equipment destroyed in battle (and even that isn't counted immediately). We will lose some troops and helicopters in the Tsunami relief, it is the nature of those aircraft that they crash now and then. Those figures will not be in the relief budget, they will be buried in the overall military appropriation. But the cost of a carrier assigned to the Persian Gulf is a part of the figures for the Iraq war (and it is a large cost). The cost of the USS Lincoln's group will just be absorbed in the budget. You are comparing apples and oranges. But I don't denigrate your viewpoint, only your figures. Best, Jon To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
