Cost of War

I was looking online to figure out how much money is being spent in Iraq. I found a very interesting website http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home. The website has a running counter for how much is actually being spent right now. Also, you can check how much each state is spending. Just to put it in perspective, the small state of Indiana could be doing the following with all the money Indiana has spent so far on the war (On the website you can check your state too):

Taxpayers in Indiana will pay $10 billion for total Iraq war spending approved to date. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:

2,959,263 People with Health Care for One Year
OR
9,495,120 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year
OR
246,365 Public Safety Officers for One year
OR
155,518 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year
OR
1,339,154 Scholarships for University Students for One Year
OR
104,598 Affordable Housing Units
OR
4,730,759 Children with Health Care for One Year
OR
1,494,180 Head Start Places for Children for One Year
OR
174,996 Elementary School Teachers for One Year
OR
136,968 Port Container Inspectors for One year

Makes us wonder how many people would still have jobs with only part of this money. Oh!! Also check Michigan the total amount of money spent by MI so far is $17.4 billion. coincidently thats the same amount as the auto bailout and it has been said over and over again that hopefully 1.4 million jobs will be saved with this bail out.

I know people will argue that they are doing this for security reasons. But there are many more means to keep a country safe. War is not a solution it is only a temporary band-aid.

Abhay