Abstract

The budget for the U.S. Department of Defense requested by George W. Bush stood at 588.3 billion dollars for Fiscal Year 2009, a 7.5 percent increase over the FY2008 level. Since 2001, the additional costs of coping with the "Global War On Terror" already amounted to over 800 billion dollars.

President Bush intended to sell to Americans a quick, free and glorious war. It turned into a humanitarian disaster and is becoming the most expensive war in History: more than 3 trillion, according to the Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz.

Several generations of Americans and Iraqis will end up paying the true cost of this war, which is not only measured in hard cash, but also in sustainable deficit for national and international security and for constitutional freedoms.