Iraq war costly on all fronts

Now that the Iraq War has come to an end, I reflect on the words of then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who stated when we invaded Iraq: “The war may go on for five days or five weeks or five months but it certainly not going to last any longer than that.”
Furthermore, the then-Vice President Dick Cheney stated at the time of 1,000 American deaths that we were seeing “the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.”

My question is, how long did the war last? And how many deaths did we incur? The answer is more than 4,000 deaths and a nine-year war, and in addition more than $800 billion added to our debt. With leaders like these, it is no wonder that we, as a country, have got to get our act together.

Virgil J. Koechner
Farmer, Tipton