Not only has the Iraq War cost us thousands of precious lives, it continues to cost us real cash money. USA Today reported on page one today that the Army will ask for 10,000 new armored vehicles.
Yes, folks, 10,000 new vehicles. And if we want to protect our soldiers (and we do), we ought to give the Army what it wants.
But as USA Today notes, this figure is four times what the Army originally requested. And because these vehicles must be specially built and heavily armored for maximum protection, their cost is, well, astronomical: more than $1 million a copy.
How do we pay for this very expensive protection? Maybe we can give some new tax cuts to the rich, a demographic the Bush Administration favors. Or maybe we'll pass the debt along to our grandchildren, another legacy of the Bush War on Iraq.
Worse than the cost, perhaps, is what these new vehicles mean in terms of the war. USA Today found an analyst who made this depressing prediction: "This is an acknowledgement that we'll be in Iraq for a long time and that we need to replace every Humvee there," Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute told the newspaper.
Like we said, it's depressing.
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