Number of soldiers in the country today
Currently the U.S. has a total of 44.000 troops in Iraq. All the other nations have already withdrawn most of their troops, the few that are left are mostly there to train the Iraqi police and military, as well as keeping order.
What is their job?
Everybody finds the situation in Iraq very critical, which is why soldiers from all over the world are still in the country. Al-Qaeda wants to control the citizens of Iraq with fear based on theology. The countries that are supporting the war are against that fact, and want to fight for democracy in Iraq. They want equality, the freedom of speech and the freedom to choose. The soldiers try to fight the terrorists and educate Iraqi soldiers to rebuild a stronger and fairer society for the civilians. This is necessary for them to be able to leave with a good conscience and leave the responsibility to the Iraq people themselves. If the situation shouldn't continue to develop and al-Qaeda should stop the suppression of the citizens of Iraq, the soldiers are going to have to fight the Sunni Islamic terror organization and various other groups
But whose responsibility is it to make the switch from theocracy to democracy happen?
And how many innocent lives should be allowed taken before the war of terrorism ends?
Number of casualties
So far the total estimated amount of casualties is over 100.000, while the official number is at 33.150. Since the war began the American Military has lost 4436 soldiers. Other than the physical injuries, there are also 30% of the U.S. troops who develop serious mental health problems a few months after returning home.
Not only have (K) there been a lot of casualties among the soldiers, there have (K) also been a lot of civilians who have (K) had violent deaths. WikiLeaks has released logs that record a total of 66,000 civilians deaths from 2003-2010. The Iraqi troops are being targeted too, since the start of the war there has been a total of 10.000 dead people amongst Iraqi police and military.
Estimates of cost
It is very hard to tell what the war in Iraq really did cost, since there are so many numbers to keep track of. But according to Stiglitz, who is the former chief economist of the World Bank, the indirect costs and delayed costs, are around $3 trillion[1] or even more!
The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) is nonpartisan and wrote in a letter to the House and Senate budget committee, what the estimated cost of the Iraq war would be[2]:
- Initial deployment of troops: $9-$13 billion
- Conduction of the war: $6-$9 billion per month!
- Returning forces to US – transportation: $5-$7 billion
- Temporary occupation in Iraq: $1-$4 billion per month!
The war began in 2003, which means it lasted for 8 year approximately. Now, you do the math!
But the CBO is aware of several unknown factors, which could have a minor or a major influence, on the total cost of the Iraq War – here they are:
- Actual force size deployed
- Duration of the conflict
- Strategy employed
- Number of casualties
- Military equipment lost
- Need for reconstruction of Iraq’s infrastructure
The Future
The future is uncertain. We don’t really know when the war will end, and what will cause it to end? Will the American soldiers pull out of Iraq, when they’ve helped them reconstruct their cities, and educated the Iraq authorities?
oh.
SvarSlet