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Letter to Scranton Times-Tribune: War Meter Running
Editor: Scranton can't afford full salaries for its public employees. But it has money to support our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A few years ago, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard scholar Linda Bilmes estimated the eventual cost of the Iraq war at $3 trillion. That has been revised. In late 2010, Mr. Stiglitz asserted that the cost "would easily be in the $4 trillion range" when one includes "lifetime medical care, disability compensation and Social Security for wounded veterans." The total is $12,740 per person. If we add the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, this may top $5 trillion. What is Scranton's share of the eventual cost of the Iraq war? With a population of 76,000 it will be $968 million (add about 20 percent more for Afghanistan). When will citizens there -and in the nation - rise up to protest the true causes of our financial crises?
JOHN MARCIANO
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