[R-G] THE DECIDER NEEDS TO WORK ON HIS MATH

[Anthony Fenton]

Copyright 2007 The Arizona Republic
All Rights Reserved
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)

August 5, 2007 Sunday
Final Chaser Edition

SECTION: VIEWPOINTS; Pg. 2

LENGTH: 655 words

HEADLINE: THE DECIDER NEEDS TO WORK ON HIS MATH

BYLINE: Joe Garcia, The Arizona Republic

BODY:


President Bush got out his calculator, slide rule and abacus the  
other day and -- using 10 fingers and as many toes -- came up with a  
figure he did not like: 22 billion.

That's the difference in dollars between the White House and Congress  
spending bills.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called it a "very small  
difference" to be negotiated in compromise talks.

Bush, after an obligatory mention of the Minnesota bridge collapse,  
pounced on her words: "Only in Washington can $22 billion be called a  
very small difference."

OK, Master Mathematician with a MasterCard, let's look at some numbers:

* $12 billion a month ($10 billion a month for Iraq alone) in stepped- 
up U.S. military operations, according to a U.S. congressional  
analysis. (That's $144 billion a year, by my calculations. I have  
fingers and toes, too.)

* $447 billion. That has been the total cost to the U.S. government  
so far for military operations in both invasions.

* $350 billion to $700 billion to provide medical care and disability  
benefits to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a January  
2007 study by Linda Bilmes of Harvard University's Kennedy School of  
Government.

* $20 billion, the estimate for rebuilding and diplomatic expenses  
needed in Iraq through 2017.

* $1 trillion (yes, trillion with a "t") as the eventual total cost  
for the war in Iraq, under a best-case scenario of immediate and  
substantial troop reduction, according to the nonpartisan  
Congressional Budget Office.

The grand total could be much higher. Some say double.

Wow. I guess the cost of destroying/rebuilding a nation all adds up.  
But when talking about the war in Iraq, other things do not:

* Zero weapons of mass destruction.

* Zero link to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

* Zero risk to national security before the invasion.

* Zero justification for a nation to go or stay at war.

Can you count from zero to 1 trillion? (Kids, don't try this at home.  
You'll grow old before your time.)

But there are other numbers to consider:

* 3,647 confirmed U.S. military deaths as of Aug. 1.

* 27,104 confirmed U.S. military wounded as of Aug. 1.

* 1,001 deaths of U.S. government civilian contractors as of June 30.

* 655,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, according to one study. Another  
study puts the number closer to 66,000. In any regard, according to  
Associated Press figures, there were at least 2,024 Iraqi deaths in  
July alone.

The current fiscal year ends Sept. 30, and Bush knocked Democratic  
leaders for planning a monthlong summer recess for Congress beginning  
this weekend. That gives Congress just a few weeks to iron out the  
wrinkles of any spending bills when it returns.

"This doesn't have to be this way," Bush said.

Call it the law of averages, but the president who has been wrong on  
just about everything finally got something right: It doesn't have to  
be this way.

Democrats in Congress should not rest -- not until they do what they  
were sent to Washington, D.C., to do, and that's to end this  
catastrophically miscalculated war.

How to do it? By the numbers.

Congress should quit acting like a victim and use its powers --  
including the power of subtraction.

Congress knows the score. It controls the purse strings. No money, no  
war. It's that simple. Forget about all the phony debate and late- 
night theatrics with rollaway beds and no chance of getting the  
necessary GOP votes to stop the war. That's just politics in action.  
Or should I say politics "inaction"?

Democrats have become war enablers.

This "Do Nothing Congress" cannot continually claim to oppose the war  
while continuing to fund a trillion-dollar mistake.

We have real needs here at home, among them: More than 75,000 bridges  
across America are rated structurally deficient, according to the  
American Society of Civil Engineers.

The price tag for repair: $190 billion.

We don't have that kind of money. Why? Do the math.

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Reach Viewpoints Editor Joe Garcia at joe.garcia at arizonarepublic.com  
or (602) 444-8157.