One of Ours

...I would encourage readers to check out a site called the Cost of War, which includes a running ticker of the estimated costs of the Iraq war and occupation...

...Like any other choice, the decision to invade Iraq implies a year's worth of opportunity costs: Options not taken, programs not funded, problems left unsolved during the past 365 days...

...Absent the war, the president could have still had his tax cut and paid for every state program that was shorted during the past two years. Sure, we'd still have nearly a trillion dollars in federal deficits during the past two years, but that's thanks to a unified Republican government that thinks 'fiscal discipline' means punishing anyone who criticizes or even points out their budgetary recklessness. But at least the states would be fiscally stronger...

… The opportunity costs of decisions made by our leaders are borne, in varying ways and to varying degrees, upon all of us -- or, in the case of the borrow-and-spend crowd occupying the Oval Office, borne upon not only all current taxpayers, but on our children and grandchildren as well. The liberation of Iraq has been and will continue to be costly, and we've just entered Year Two. But the president continues to justify his actions by speaking as infrequently as possible about the pricetag. He does so precisely because he does not want Americans taking the opportunity to think about the costs of Iraq thus far, and those that will follow. Those are the 'opportunity costs' the president wants to avoid most of all...