Maths for the Weekend

Since September 2001, the Bush administration has spent or plans to spend more than $450 billion-- nearly half a trillion dollars-- on military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

How to fathom this number?

• 400 times larger than the amount the US has spent or plans to spend on aid to Haiti in the twelve years since 1995.
• More than 100 times Haiti's GDP.
• Equivalent to the annual starting salaries of 10 million WSJ reporters
  
• $75 a person in the world
  
• Almost 9 times Bill Gates' net worth
• $15 million per dead Iraqi civilian, per W's only public estimate
• $4.5 million per dead Iraqi civilian, per the Lancet's estimate
• $150 million per US civilian killed in the Sept 2001 attacks
• $450 billion times too much