And for what?

Newsweek has a slide show of a few Iraqi vets and thumbnail descriptions of their stories.

All the folks who cheered this war, especially those who continue to do so, likely have never thought of the true cost.

In addition to plunging the country into insane and precarious deficits for generations to come, no one who blustered and lied about the phony reasons why we need to be in Iraq ever mentions the long-term billions of dollars it will cost to provide care to thousands upon thousands of severely wounded veterans.

Many are so young that taxpayers will be providing millions for their care for the next 50 or 60 years. 50 to 60 years at thousands of dollars a year. The cost is incomprehensible and ongoing. Yet those who routinely clammor for more war and more deaths are the very ones who simultaneously support literally billions in tax cuts for the very wealthiest people in our country, the very people which are profiting handsomely from Bush's "war".

How does this even begin to make sense? The answer is easy. It doesn't and never has.

On a related note, an easily overlooked bit in the Dispatch notes that the VA has awarded a $10.1 million dollar contract to expand and enhance the vast veterans cemetary on Arsenal Island. The contract was given not to any local companies, but one from the Chicago area.

5 years into this disasterous "war", someone evidently realized that they better make room for many more bodies, and soon. And add the millions of tax dollars it will take to buy land for and bury all the bodies we're creating and all the returning vets when their times comes to the staggering cost this administration has burdened the country with. They'll be long gone, worth billions, while future generations will be forced to do without to pay for it all.