Iraq War

Here is the quiz question of the day: How long has it been since the Iraq war started? No, no, no... no google here... just to test your memory... en... about a year? or a year and half? Actually my memory is rather fuzzy on this matter, but if I have to guess, I would probably say "a year and half". That sounds about right.

OK, let's find out the answer. According to Google, here are the facts:


The war officially started in March 19, 2003.
(Holy shit, it has been 2 and half years already!! Time does fly, er?!)


US casualties in Iraq are approaching the 2,000 mark.
(Well, this number probably would be dwarfed by Iraqi civilian death tolls, but 2,000 is still a nerve-wracking number to look at.)


Total cost of war is over $200bn already.
(As a tax payer, I absolutely hate to read this number. $200 freaking billion dollars!!!! Can you even fathom the concept of $200bn???)

OK, here is what $200bn can normally do:
1. we could have provided approximately 10 million students four-year scholarships at public universities for one year.
2. we could have hired approximately 3.5 million additional public school teachers for one year.
3. we could have fully funded global anti-hunger efforts for 8 years.
4. we could have fully funded world-wide AIDS programs for 20 years.
5. we could have built approximately 2 million additional public housing units.
The list can go on and on, but you should have got the general idea already. After seeing what happened to New Orlean after the devastating Katrina and all the relief effort from all around the world, I can't help but thinking "wouldn't it be nice if we haven't spent that $200bn?")

OK, enough ranting... Life sucks and we just have to suck it up.