by Craig Kielburger and Marc Kielburger
In war, things are rarely what they seem.

Back in 2003, in the days leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon adamantly insisted that the war would be a relatively cheap one. Roughly $50 billion is all it would take to rid the world of Saddam Hussein, it said.

We now know this turned out to be the first of many miscalculations. Approaching its fifth year, the war in Iraq has cost American taxpayers nearly $500 billion, according to the non-partisan U.S.-based research group National Priorities Project. That number is growing every day.

But it’s still not even close to the true cost of the war. As the invasion’s price tag balloons, economists and analysts are examining the entire financial burden of the Iraq campaign, including indirect expenses that Americans will be paying long after the troops come home. What they’ve come up with is staggering. Calculations by Harvard’s Linda Bilmes and Nobel-prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz remain most prominent. They determined that, once you factor in things like medical costs for injured troops, higher oil prices and replenishing the military, the war will cost America upwards of $2 trillion. That doesn’t include any of the costs incurred by Iraq, or America’s coalition partners.

“Would the American people have had a different attitude toward going to war had they known the total cost?” Bilmes and Stiglitz ask in their report. “We might have conducted the war in a manner different from the way we did.”

It’s hard to comprehend just how much money $2 trillion is. Even Bill Gates, one of the richest people in the world, would marvel at this amount. But, once you begin to look at what that money could buy, the worldwide impact of fighting this largely unpopular war becomes clear.

Consider that, according to sources like Columbia’s Jeffrey Sachs, the Worldwatch Institute, and the United Nations, with that same money the world could:

Eliminate extreme poverty around the world (cost $135 billion in the first year, rising to $195 billion by 2015.)

Achieve universal literacy (cost $5 billion a year.)

Immunize every child in the world against deadly diseases (cost $1.3 billion a year.)

Ensure developing countries have enough money to fight the AIDS epidemic (cost $15 billion per year.)

In other words, for a cost of $156.3 billion this year alone - less than a tenth of the total Iraq war budget - we could lift entire countries out of poverty, teach every person in the world to read and write, significantly reduce child mortality, while making huge leaps in the battle against AIDS, saving millions of lives.

Then the remaining money could be put toward the $40 billion to $60 billion annually that the World Bank says is needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, established by world leaders in 2000, to tackle everything from gender inequality to environmental sustainability.

The implications of this cannot be underestimated. It means that a better and more just world is far from within reach, if we are willing to shift our priorities.

If America and other nations were to spend as much on peace as they do on war, that would help root out the poverty, hopelessness and anti-Western sentiment that can fuel terrorism - exactly what the Iraq war was supposed to do.

So as candidates spend much of this year vying to be the next U.S. president, what better way to repair its image abroad, tarnished by years of war, than by becoming a leader in global development? It may be too late to turn back the clock to the past and rethink going to war, but it’s not too late for the U.S. and other developed countries to invest in the future.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are children’s rights activists and co-founded Free The Children, which is active in the developing world.

© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2008

consider the other side - One half of the USA destroyed by a terroist Nuclear weapon attack!!!!

It still can happen Geeze.....we all know at this time and then according to many experts that saddam was the least of our worries and just a reminder BiN laden the alleged mastermind of 911 is still on the loose so exactly what has been accomplished?

A whole country fell (Iraq) because the terroist hit the USA!!!

And the terroist know the price for hitting us again as long as George is on duty!!!

Afghanistan terroist are not what they used to be and now its

time for Pakistan to deal with the terroist.

The terroist aren't stupid - the cost of further attacks with Bush president is just too great!!

eg gods did Iraq have something to do with 911? did I miss something? what are you saying?

somebody had to pay!!!

Oh so its ok if innocents pay as long as someone gets killed? i am just trying to follow your thought process here so I can better engage in this conversation

There were terroist in Iraq, duh?

your thought process is flawed if you don't think the terroist would rather have Sadam in power!!

No its not flawed at all I will enlighten you...Saddam was an enemy to the secular Osama. in fact that is why america supported saddam for so many years being that he was a bullwark against radical muslims, Sadam being a bathist had no use for radical Islam. I suggest you do some googling. the terrorist didnt shopw up in Iraq untill afte we invaded and to even lable them terrorist is a bit of a stretch being that we are an occupieing army on there sacred soil.....

terroist - Twin towers

Usa - Iraq and Afghanistan

Do you believe that the terroist want to inspire us to do more?

No, they'll wait for a spineless president!!!

Never mind..........

And, if only I would have won the lottery on Saturday.

What COULD HAVE been.

Yes lets not talk about all the dead babies blown up in Iraq in colateral damage........no wonder the hate us so much.

If only there were no guns, no weapons, no violence, no evil.

What COULD HAVE been.

If only my money tree would start producing money and during rains it would pour gumdrops and lollipops.

What COULD HAVE been.

If only we hadn't been on the defense after terrorist attack after attack and the obvious sign of a buildup of terror infrastructure during the '90s.

What COULD HAVE been.

If only there weren't dictators in the world bent on our destruction, the slaughter of innocents in mass graves, and didn't want the annihilation of an entire race or culture of people.

What COULD HAVE been.

Its a crying shame america is the one causing all the trouble all over the world what hypocracy......hey have you enlisted yet? they need a few good men

^ absolutely wonderful statement from an American

I will join when you go join al Qaeda....please do. They need a few good men too since they are absolutely getting demolished and pushed out of Iraq more and more everyday.

sorry to disapoint you but for some reasone I feel like I am liveing in nazi germany and the only thing missing is we havent started dumping people into concentration camps yet

Yeah, you know it's not like you are allowed to debate freely on websites, in the streets, on tv.

Not like you are allowed to gather in assemblies.

Too bad the government took away the rights of citizens to bear arms.

Come on, Nazi Germany? Your paranoia is very troubling.

hey Madison i have read some of your post you make plenty of sense.I have been researching 911 stuff for two years! it's a total crock no way in hell a plane hit the pentegon! no way in hell the so called press did their journalistic duty and see to it that the common person was properly informed about the real truth! No wonder people say the crap they say about iraq that's what uninformed people are supposed to think!