One Hundred Forty-Four Billion, and counting

That's how much Bush's Cirque de Quagmire in Iraq has costed us. It's rather amazing that the Bush campaign can claim that Kerry voted against funding to give our soldiers armor when you think about just how much $144 billion dollars is and ask, "Why couldn't the sum for body armor come from those billions of dollars?" And even Fox News reports that $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds in unaccounted for. Where's all this money going?

Instead of secretly giving this money to Halliburton losing this money, Project Billboard and the Center for American Progress thinks we could put it to better use.

Opportunity Cost of the Iraq War reveals that for the cost of the Iraq war to date, the US could have undertaken 18 major new projects to strengthen its security in the world and at home.

Suggestions include adding two new divisions to the army, putting 100,000 new police officers on the nation's streets, doubling the size of the Firefighters Grant Program and doubling Special Operations forces.

I like the Firefighters Grant proposal, especially since Bush plans on visiting an NYC Fire Department during the convention. I wish I could remember what blog I read this off of, but I liked their suggestion: "Why doesn't Bush visit one of the stations that had to close?"