# $5.9 billion per month **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 17, 2006, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-9-billion-per-month/344946 "2006-02-17T14:50:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-9-billion-per-month/344946/61 "2006-02-18T09:23:19Z")
Seeing that the cost of the wars this year is 111 billion, could some clever accountant try to save 1 percent of it somehow (1 billion) and move it to a different part of the budget to avoid selling national forests - land that the public will probably never get back? From the Los Angeles Times, 11 February 2006: The Bush administration is planning on raising $1 billion for rural roads and schools by auctioning off 300,000 acres in public lands (including 85,000 acres of national forest land in Califoria) to make up for a federal subsidy eliminated from President Bush’s 2007 budget. It will be the largest land sale of its kind since the US Forest service was established in 1905. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-9-billion-per-month/344946/62 "2006-02-18T14:30:42Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Look, I get it, OK? The Iraq war and hurricanes, both big destructive messes that leave enormous costs in their wakes. Genius comparison. Spot on. Bravo. The insurmountable difference between the two is that the former was completely avoidable and the latter isn’t. Drawing the analogy allows for the impression that both were unavoidable, and whether it means anything or not in the greater picture I have no interest in allowing that impression to go unchallenged. No. You _still_ don’t get the point of my original analogy. Let me dumb it down a shade for you: Don’t hate the effect, hate the cause. Tripler :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-9-billion-per-month/344946/63 "2006-02-18T16:09:33Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > No. You _still_ don’t get the point of my original analogy. Let me dumb it down a shade for you: > > Don’t hate the effect, hate the cause. > > Tripler > :rolleyes: So, I hate the Republican run administration. Works for me! ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-9-billion-per-month/344946/64 "2006-02-18T16:48:08Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > No. You _still_ don’t get the point of my original analogy. Perhaps it’s time to consider that you lack the ability to communicate it clearly. > [@Tripler](#): > > Don’t hate the effect, hate the cause. I’ll hate both the cause (Iraqi clusterfuck) and the effect (hundreds of billions of wasted dollars), thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Gladstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/90db22/32.png) [@Gladstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gladstone)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-9-billion-per-month/344946/65 "2006-02-18T17:03:08Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > No. You _still_ don’t get the point of my original analogy. Let me dumb it down a shade for you: > > Don’t hate the effect, hate the cause. > > Tripler > :rolleyes: As several posters have pointed out, you can’t control when and where hurricanes occur, but generally people have some level of control over when and where wars occur. The **cause** of a hurricane is warm water combined with conditions conducive to thunderstorm formation, a pre-existing weather disturbance, a relatively close proximity to the equator, and low vertical wind sheer. The **cause** of the war in Iraq is somewhat unclear, since the justification for the war changed once the war was over. Further, unlike the factors causing a hurricane to form, war is always a human choice. That’s what many people have been emphasizing: you can hate all the factors that cause a hurricane to develop but hurricanes continue to exist regardless of our feelings. War, particularly the war in Iraq, was primarily Bush’s choice, whose aftermath could have been drastically improved with a more realistic and in-depth post-war plan. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-9-billion-per-month/344946/66 "2006-02-19T00:54:12Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Waging war against terrorism: $5.9 billion a month > > Not having any more jets fly into skyscrapers: priceless Let me correct your post: Waging war against a regime set up by the US: $5.9 billion a month Not having any more WMD’s in Iraq: priceless ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-9-billion-per-month/344946/67 "2006-02-19T01:04:19Z")
> [@glee](#): > > Let me correct your post: > > Waging war against a regime set up by the US: $5.9 billion a month > > Not having any more WMD’s in Iraq: priceless What the fuck are you on about? Even the bushistas have admitted there were never any there to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-9-billion-per-month/344946/68 "2006-02-19T01:25:26Z")
> [@askeptic](#): > > What the fuck are you on about? Even the bushistas have admitted there were never any there to begin with. Exactly. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-9-billion-per-month/344946/69 "2006-02-19T02:03:06Z")
> [@drewbert](#): > > Exactly. “Those are some fancy duds, Emperor. But don’t you get cold?” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-9-billion-per-month/344946/70 "2006-02-19T17:28:38Z")
> [@askeptic](#): > > What the fuck are you on about? Even the bushistas have admitted there were never any there to begin with. Well Clothahump recently started a thread saying the WMDs had been found… Anyway, I missed out a pair of quotemarks + a smiley (which might have alerted Clothahump to the parallel between the fact that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and that there were no WMDs in Iraq). > [@Clothahump](#): > > Waging war against terrorism: $5.9 billion a month > Not having any more jets fly into skyscrapers: priceless Let me correct your post: Waging war against a regime set up by the US: $5.9 billion a month ‘Not having any more WMD’s in Iraq’: :rolleyes: priceless [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/5-9-billion-per-month/344946.md?page=3)