There should be a genre known as political thriller or economics thriller. If there were such categories, "The Three Trillion Dollar War" would be in one of them.
The authors make their bias known at the start of the book. They believe that going to war in Iraq was wrong. They give reasons for their position with each chapter of the book outlining the costs of the war in many ways the reader might not even thought of. In order to neutralize their bias, they also present the figures and conclusions in two ways: a best-case scenario, and a rational-realistic one. The former is to err on the side of a conservative supporting view of the war, and the latter is to project what they believe are the true costs of war.
Those costs are measured on the nation's budget, the cost of caring for our veterans, and the costs of war that the government doesn't pay. These topics alone don't sound like political or economic thrillers. While there was a great deal of interesting observations in these chapters, the authors' frequent analyses and charts gave the book a sobering, academic tone.
The last three chapters had me with my highlighter at the ready: the macroeconomic effect of the conflicts, the global consequences, exiting Iraq, and learning from our mistakes got my heart pounding as if it was a Stephen King novel. One question kept coming to mind as I turned each page: why didn't the Bush administration anticipate any of these problems? From my almost daily obsession with the war, it was clear that the issues raised here were never a consideration.
Authors, Stiglitz and Bilmes make the case that war has a multiplier effect. The true costs are not just what it costs to maintain war. It will cost us in the trillions (hence the title) to care for our veterans for years to come, and the cost of their value to society that we will never realize because they are buried. The military will have a multiplier effect, because they will not only have to sustain their budget, but replace it to prewar levels, not to mention rebuilding reserve and guard units. What the government will not provide for will be the burden of the wife, husband, father, mother, brother or sister who require around the clock care that government will not pay for, or will take way too long in processing the claim, and offer way too little if it approves. This is more productivity lost.
What is equally stunning is the trust and popularity that nations once had for the United States has plummeted, even in nations that are our traditional allies, or nations whose cooperation we paid for to join the Coalition of the Willing. Some of these nations rank the U.S. as a greater threat than they do North Korea. This is especially true of Iraqis who saw our troops immediately protect the oil ministry while 6,000 years of antiquities were looted. Faced with the choice of fighting for an occupier or an insurgency, the choice is easy. The U.S. failed to provide law and order, or revive the economy, or end unemployment. We tortured innocent Iraqis as well as insurgents. Why not fight for an insurgency that will torture you only if you fight the occupier?
Stiglitz and Bilmes show us clearly how the cost of this war will continue for decades. 1993 marked the highest expenditure of medical treatment for World War II veterans. We are currently paying 52 billion a year in compensation for those disabled or injured from the first Gulf War where the deaths were approximately 147 troops. With seven injuries for every combat death, a survival rate far higher than Korea or even Vietnam, think of how much and how long we will be paying for a war in which we have almost 5,000 dead and thousands more with severe injuries such as brain damage and loss of limbs.
It is clear that the Congress failed to provide the proper checks and balances on a president determined to go to war. The president also bypassed the budgetary process and hid the true cost of war by getting more money through supplemental budgets that are not scrutinized. Our Defense Department keeps its books on a "cash accounting" basis rather than an accrual one which only covers current costs, not the cost of replacements that will be necessary.
This book easily makes one of my all-time best books for political or economic thoroughness. Why? Because it makes you realize that the true cost of war is not a cost in just the present. It is a morass that continues to strap the strength and energy of a nation. This book makes me realize what I learned a long time ago about Vietnam, a lesson learned and a lesson forgotten in just a little over three decades.
This book provides a lesson that is too important to be ignored--again.
Also Recommended:
The Arrogance of Power
THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT BY JAMES A. BAKER, III, AND LEE H. HAMILTON, CO-CHAIRS
The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions, and Prosperity--and What We Can Do About It
Ten Trillion and Counting
Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and StickYou with the Bill)
The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (American Empire Project)
Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War (American Empire Project)
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Top reviews from other countries
Harold B. Pregler
Good book - not very good for one's blood pressure
Reviewed in Canada on June 14, 2013
S Wood
The True cost of Destroying Iraq
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 23, 2009