IN MID-SEPTEMBER,Lawrence Lindsey, Bush’s chief economic adviser, told a Wall Street Journal reporter that the United States might have to spend between $100 billion to $200 billion to wage war against Iraq.

Noting that the federal debt is already $3.6 trillion, Lindsey said of his estimate, “That’s nothing.” But his projection was much higher than the $50 billion figure Pentagon officials had been using in private conversations with members of Congress.

After all, even Tony Blair’s recent “white paper” on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction reported Iraq is still years away from developing a nuclear bomb

There are other financial obligations to consider. Recently, Air Force General Charles Holland, who heads the U.S. Special Operations Command, which oversees the campaign against al Qaeda, told Congress he needs an extra $23 billion over the next five years — which would nearly double his current budget — to pursue the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks. In terms of reconstruction and assistance the costly Afghanistan job is not finished either.

In his national address, Bush claimed there was clear evidence that Iraq could possibly give chemical and biological weapons to terrorists. But on the very same day of, the CIA said that the likelihood of Iraq attacking the United States without provocation was “low,” but would become far more likely if the United States. prepared for a preemptive strike

In an Oct. 7 letter, CIA director George Tenet told Congress, “Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or C.B.W. [chemical or biological warfare] against the United States. Should Saddam conclude that a U.S.-led attack could no longer be deterred, he probably would become much less constrained in adopting terrorist actions.” In other words, the war on Iraq may lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of the worst kind

Norton-Taylor says, “Short-sighted politicians in Washington, notably Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. defence secretary, and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz … have diverted the resources of their intelligence agencies, including the CIA, and worse, they are trying to manipulate intelligence-gathering for political ends.” And what is worse, an invasion and occupation of Iraq is only likely to incite more violence and encourage new recruits to the cause of Islamic extremism.

Pete Stark, the Democratic representative from California, made it brutally clear in his speech opposing the House resolution on the war just who will pay for the war

He said,”School kids will pay.” There’ll be no money to keep them from being left behind — way behind. Seniors will pay. They’ll pay big time as the Republicans privatize Social Security and rob the Trust Fund to pay for the capricious war. Medicare will be curtailed and drugs will be more unaffordable. And there won’t be any money for a drug benefit because Bush will spend it all on the war. Working folks will pay through loss of job security and bargaining rights. Our grandchildren will pay through the degradation of our air and water quality. And the entire nation will pay as Bush continues to destroy civil rights, women’s rights and religious freedom in a rush to phony patriotism and to courting the messianic Pharisees of the religious right