Three figures of note today. The death toll of US service personnel in Iraq has now reached 2,500. Meanwhile civilian casualties are estimated at between 38,000 and 42,000. And following a Senate vote yesterday, the total US spend on "the war on terror" now stands at $438 billion, of which 70% has been spent in Iraq. That's $306 billion on a conflict in a country where there was no credible intelligence establishing any links to Al-Qaeda prior to the invasion.
And after spending $438 billion, have we caught Bin Laden? No--and the Taleban still control large areas of Afghanistan. Instead we've spent most of the money in Iraq, where there were no WMDs or Al-Q leaders. And we seem to be ignoring one of the first rules of war: never reinforce failure.
