# 300 billion paid for Iraq so far. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 22, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530 "2005-04-22T01:23:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/81 "2005-04-29T15:48:22Z")
> [@Psycho Pirate](#): > > For the reasons outlined above, I support and will continue to support the war in Iraq. Regardless of what it costs. This is enormously blind. Is there anything else in the world that you would support, regardless of the cost? I’m not just talking about financial cost, but every type of cost. At least you are making rational, reasoned arguments. What I don’t understand about people like \*\*duffer \*\* is that Dubya and his ilk \*can do no wrong \* in their eyes. Whatever they did, it’s for a reason, and there’s obviously a purpose and us liberals are all too stupid to know better. What is he, God? I think not. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/82 "2005-04-29T17:55:10Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > What I don’t understand about people like \*\*duffer \*\* is that Dubya and his ilk \*can do no wrong \* in their eyes. Whatever they did, it’s for a reason, and there’s obviously a purpose and us liberals are all too stupid to know better. What is he, God? I think not. It’s that “make their own reality” meme, aka, cognitive dissonance. To wit: > [@God](#): > > “I believe we’re making really good progress in Iraq,” Bush said. “They saw a government form today. The Iraqi military is being trained by our military, and they’re performing much better than the past.” In the real world: [Insurgent Attacks Kill at Least 41 in Iraq](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20050429/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq) > [@](#): > > BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents unleashed a series of car bombings and other attacks across Iraq on Friday, killing at least 41 people, including three U.S. soldiers, and wounding dozens of people a day after the country’s first democratically elected government was approved. > > \ > > At least 11 car bombs exploded in and around Baghdad on Friday, including four suicide attacks in quick succession in the Azamiyah section of central Baghdad. > > The first one hit an Iraqi army patrol, the second a police patrol and the third and fourth at separate barricades near the headquarters of the police special forces unit, police chief Brig. Gen. Khalid al-Hassan said. Col. Hussein Mutlak said those attacks killed at least 20 Iraqis, including 15 soldiers and five civilians. At least 65 were injured, including 30 troops and 35 civilians, he said. The spin? > [@The Occupiers](#): > > “We see these attacks as another desperate attempt by the terrorists to discredit the newly formed Iraqi government,” the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement, adding the violence was failing “to drive a wedge between the Iraqi people and their right to choose their own destiny.” The End. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/83 "2005-04-29T18:05:05Z")
Pencils? Pencils? But, of course! _Graphite!_ An essential ingredient in an atomic reactor of the Fermi design! If they could obtain a couple hundred thousand No. 2 pencils, and assign several hundred thousand persons to shave off the wood, they could obtain sufficient graphite in a mere matter of months. Refurbish that uranium enriching whirligig from under the rose bush, and they would have sufficient enriched uranium for a bomb in a bit under 220 years! ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/84 "2005-04-29T18:48:52Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Pencils? Pencils? But, of course! _Graphite!_ An essential ingredient in an atomic reactor of the Fermi design! If they could obtain a couple hundred thousand No. 2 pencils, and assign several hundred thousand persons to shave off the wood, they could obtain sufficient graphite in a mere matter of months. Refurbish that uranium enriching whirligig from under the rose bush, and they would have sufficient enriched uranium for a bomb in a bit under 220 years! Your irony is misplaced for it wrongly sets the Pencil Peril too far in the future. See, Saddam could have loaded millions of those pencils into those Unmanned Aerial Vehicles he didn’t have and dropped them smack in the middle of downtown Nipples. Now think back to your childhood years – if you still can – and the times your Mother said to you: “You could poke your eye out with that thing” and combine that terrifying mental image with oodles of your denizens, running around like chickens with their heads cut off, blood gushing everywhere, eyesockets impaled by raining counterfit Faber-Castell #2s. So, if you – as myself – are truly a Nipple-lover, you should now realize this was a matter of great expediency. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/85 "2005-04-29T18:59:21Z")
Addendum to the above post: the whole scenario is contingent to Saddam having/having access to, pencil-sharpeners galore, or else the Pencil Peril, as outlined, loses much of its effectiveness as a WMD. Anyone know what US intelligence had to say about those? ---
**Author:** ![guinnog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@guinnog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guinnog)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/86 "2005-04-29T19:20:36Z")
> [@RedFury](#): > > Your irony is misplaced for it wrongly sets the Pencil Peril too far in the future. See, Saddam could have loaded millions of those pencils into those Unmanned Aerial Vehicles he didn’t have and dropped them smack in the middle of downtown Nipples. > > Now think back to your childhood years – if you still can – and the times your Mother said to you: “You could poke your eye out with that thing” and combine that terrifying mental image with oodles of your denizens, running around like chickens with their heads cut off, blood gushing everywhere, eyesockets impaled by raining counterfit Faber-Castell #2s. > > So, if you – as myself – are truly a Nipple-lover, you should now realize this was a matter of great expediency. I thought the pencils they found were clear evidence of Iraq’s possession of Weapons of Maths Instruction. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/87 "2005-04-29T20:49:08Z")
300 Billion works out to about $1,250 for every man, woman and child. er… **From** every man, woman, and child, that is. Everyone who was so elated about their $600 tax break might want to think about that… ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/88 "2005-05-03T16:53:38Z")
> [@bizzwire](#): > > 300 Billion works out to about $1,250 for every man, woman and child. er… **From** every man, woman, and child, that is. Everyone who was so elated about their $600 tax break might want to think about that… Are you denying he gave the citizens money back? Is the fact that Saddam Hussein remote-controlled those planes into the WTC (aided by Zionists, of course) GWB’s fault? Of course not. QED, motherfucker! -Joe, 8I812, motherfucker! ---
**Author:** ![ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZombiesAteMyBrain)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/89 "2005-05-03T17:07:40Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Is the fact that Saddam Hussein remote-controlled those planes into the WTC (aided by Zionists, of course) GWB’s fault? > > Of course not. QED, motherfucker! Saddam Hussein did WHAT!!! Surely you aren’t serious? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/90 "2005-05-03T17:11:32Z")
> [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](#): > > Saddam Hussein did WHAT!!! > > Surely you aren’t serious? You are so wooshed. And stop calling him Shirley! ---
**Author:** ![ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZombiesAteMyBrain)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/91 "2005-05-03T17:24:16Z")
> [@This Year's Model](#): > > And stop calling him Shirley! You never know - maybe he feels like a ‘Shirley’ inside! ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/92 "2005-05-03T17:47:33Z")
> [@This Year's Model](#): > > You are so wooshed. > > And stop calling him Shirley! 🙂 Shit, homey, just going by what the polls say. It’s almost as if someone had engineered such beliefs intentionally… -Joe ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/93 "2005-05-03T20:53:53Z")
> [@Mtgman](#): > > We’ve already done the borrowing(and spending). Now what remains to be seen is if the admin can reign in spending to free up the general funds enough to pay it back. Why, we already are! One way is to [cut back adult education programs by 75%.](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4628441) Nobody REALLY needs a GED. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/94 "2005-05-03T23:51:22Z")
According to [Federal Budget: Fact File](http://www.publicagenda.org/issues/factfiles_detail.cfm?issue_type=federal_budget&list=8)… Food and nutrition assistance (foodstamps, free lunch program, etc.) comprise 1.9% of the budget. Family support (what most of us think of as “welfare checks”) is 1.2%. Housing assistance is 1.6%. These three things combined don’t come close to the amount spent in by the warhawks and their Howdy-Doody puppet. And yet when all those self-righteous, money-tight conservatives talk about wasteful spending, what’s the first thing they whine about? The libertarians like to talk about “rape” when it comes to taxes dedicated to social welfare, but where is their rhetoric when it comes to taxes used for WHOLESALE, UNJUSTIFIED KILLING AND DESTRUCTION. We’ve all been gang-raped–why aren’t they screaming?! We live in a bizarro world. Poor Americans: bad slackers who need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Poor foreigners who live close to oil: people who deserve to feed at Mother America’s ample bosom indefinitely. God bless 'em (just keep them over there…we don’t need anymore “Ahsalamalaykum” folks over here!) Americans killed by terrorism: must be remembered in every prayer and honored with car ornaments and cheap slogans like “Let’s Roll” and “These Colors Don’t Run”. Iraqis killed by terrorism post-SH: don’t even worry about forgetting them. Don’t even acknowledge their existence, since their lives were meaningless anyway. Our bombs just spared them from second-hand smoke. $42.5 billion for food/nutrition programs: a huge amount of money that’s a waste since there are no real hungry people in the US, and those who are hungry deserve to be that way. $300 billion for spending in Iraq/Afganistan: a drop in the bucket. We should really spend some more, just to make sure the Al-Kay-Duhs don’t crop up somewhere. American soldiers: fighters of freedom and democracy and righteousness. We must support them at all cost, even when they volunteer to enter this madness on their own accord. Iraqi insurgents: scoundrels, all of them. They should all be killed. How dare they defend themselves and their country from foreign invaders! What nerve! Let’s drive around in the biggest SUV we can find and talk about how people shouldn’t be bitching about gas prices, since a gallon of Pepto-Bismol is WAYYY more expensive than a gallon of unleaded. Those ungrateful liberals! A damn bizarro world. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/95 "2005-05-04T02:20:08Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > And if anyone cares to tell me what immediate threat Serbia was to the US, I’m still waiting. Let’s see… Well, Serbia had no weapons of mass destruction. Serbia was ruled by a genocidal madman. Serbia had no links to Al Qaeda. Or 9/11 Serbia had the capability to develop biological weapons (So does the biology lab at your local community college, but that’s not important). Serbia’s leader was not tied to an assassination attempt on George HW Bush. Clearly, Serbia posed an “imminent threat” to the United States. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/96 "2005-05-04T02:27:26Z")
and **Duffer** , is this going to be repeat of [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=310455&page=1) where you took a steaming dump, were roundly and rightly ridiculed, and slunk off without bothering to clean up after yourself? ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530/97 "2005-05-04T03:48:11Z")
> [@bizzwire](#): > > and **Duffer** , is this going to be repeat of [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=310455&page=1) where you took a steaming dump, were roundly and rightly ridiculed, and slunk off without bothering to clean up after yourself? He’s less than a chimp - the board would be a better place if he were just placed on everyone’s ignore list. Oh, and in response to **monstro** , is it really necessary for me to demonstrate by sticking my fingers in my ears and chanting, “Bush lowered taxes, 9/11, faggots marrying, welfare queens, go Earnhardt!” once again? A huge chunk of people are a lost fucking cause. You’re just wearing yourself out on them. -Joe, tired [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/300-billion-paid-for-iraq-so-far/300530.md?page=4)