$80k per American for wars so far

Get your checkbook out, because you owe Mr. Bush $80,000 for his blunders in Iraq and Afghanistan.
All of those no-bid contracts for his buddies, pallets of cash, and mysteriously inept accounting practises have their cost, I guess. Who could possibly have expected this?

And the sale of bonds to keep the costs of the war "off the books", essentially borrowing the money from other countries, means that you not only have to pay it back, but with interest. Who knew?

These are "hidden costs"? Hidden from whom?

So now we will be treated to the sight of "support the troops" Republicans trying to screw wounded vets out of disability pay and medical treatment, while screaming for new wars. Now all of those flag-waving Republicans will see the cost of Bush's ineptitude in dragging out the Afghan and Iraq efforts into several years due to hopeless optimism that everything would go our way because we are are, after all, the United States of America.

Of course, this is only the cost of these two campaigns so far. With Bush determined to keep us in both of these quagmires for the rest of his term, those costs will inevitably increase. Since Petraeus says we will need to be in Iraq for at least ten more years, each of us could very well be on the hook for over $185,000 each. But at least Saddam was hanged and some Afghan girls get to go to school in a violence-wracked country with a collapsed economy.

story from the BBC

Hidden costs 'raise US war price'

The US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing nearly double the amount previously thought, according to a report set to be released by Congress.

Democrats say the wars have cost $1.5 trillion - almost twice the requested $804bn (£402bn) - because of "hidden costs", the Washington Post reports.

That figure would amount to $20,000 for an average US family of four, it adds.

And some of the figures cited in the report were labelled speculative by funding experts, the Post says.

Among the indicators contributing to the higher cost of the conflicts are higher oil costs and payments to war veterans.
'Lost earnings'
The report is expected to be presented to Congress later on Tuesday.
The Democratic authors included the costs of treating wounded veterans and mounting interest payments on money borrowed to finance the wars.
The report calculates that the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the average US family of four more than $20,000.
It adds that the amount could rise to $46,300 over the next decade, the Washington Post says.
The committee's Democrats estimate that treating veterans could add more than $30bn to war costs, including disability payments and lost earnings for veterans affected by post-traumatic stress disorder.
Republicans have not yet commented officially on the report.