Darn facts.

Some excerpted facts from The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict.

Much was said about the fact that Kuwait and the Saudi’s paid a great deal of the cost of the Gulf War. (Remember that one? The ‘Free’ war.) What’s not reported is the fact that we have spent $4.3 billion a year ever since the end of that war in payments to veterans for pension, disability and compensation. We have already spent $50 billion in Gulf War disability benefits. “Nor does it even scratch the surface of the broader economic consequences, for instance, from the loss of income for up to 100,000 soldiers exposed to chemicals associated with so-called Gulf War syndrome, 40,000 of whom have long-term disabilities.”

Want to know more about how your tax dollars are spent? The National Priority Project has some answers. And for wishful thinking, there is a page devoted to ‘What if…’ and you can see what you spent locally in war taxes and what you could have bought instead of what the Decider bought for you. And this one really surprised me…I didn’t know that we had $34.9 million dollars to spare, here in Glenn County. Or, maybe we didn’t.