The three trillion dollar war : the true cost of the Iraq conflict / Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [235]-295) and index.

Is it really three trillion? -- The costs to the nation's budget -- The true cost of caring for our veterans -- Costs of war that the government doesn't pay -- The macroeconomic effects of the war -- Global consequences -- Exiting Iraq -- Learning from our mistakes : reforms for the future -- Appendices: President's letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives on the Emergency Appropriations Act -- Evolving DOD Web sites for Operation Iraqi Freedom -- On methodologies.

Readers may be surprised to learn just how difficult it was for Nobel Prize-winning economist Stiglitz and Kennedy School of Government professor Bilmes to dig up the actual and projected costs of the Iraq War for this thorough piece of accounting. Using "emergency" funds to pay for most of the war, the authors show that the White House has kept even Congress and the Comptroller General from getting a clear idea on the war's true costs. Other expenses are simply overlooked, one of the largest of which is the 600 billion going toward current and future health care for veterans. These numbers reveal stark truths: improvements in battlefield medicine have prevented many deaths, but seven soldiers are injured for every one that dies (in WWII, this ratio was 1.6 to one). Figuring in macroeconomic costs and interest--the war has been funded with much borrowed money--the cost rises to 4.5 trillion; add Afghanistan, and the bill tops 7 trillion. This shocking expose, capped with 18 proposals for reform, is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how the war was financed, as well as what it means for troops on the ground and the nation's future.