EoW January 2008

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EuroWire – January 2008 31
Transat lant ic Cable
$1.5 trillion and counting
Congressional committee:
Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are far
costlier than most Americans realise
According to a new study that includes ‘hidden costs’ in its
estimate of how much the US is paying to wage war in the
Middle East, the total is approximately $1.5 trillion. A 21-page
draft report of ‘The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War’ was obtained
by the Washington Post on 12th November, a day in advance
of publication. Prepared by the Democratic staff of the Joint
Economic Committee of Congress, it estimates that that the two
wars had to that point cost the average US family of four more
than $20,000.
The report posted a total nearly double the $804 billion the
White House has expended or requested to fund the wars
through the end of 2008 by including such items as higher oil
prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans, and interest
payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars.
It declares: “The full economic costs of the war to the American
taxpayers and the overall US economy go well beyond even the
immense federal budget costs already reported.”
Writing in the Post on 13th November, Josh White noted the
assertion in the report that war funding is diverting billions
of dollars away from ‘productive investment’ by American
businesses in the United States. It also claims that the conflicts
are pulling reservists and National Guardsmen away from their
jobs, resulting in economic disruptions for US employers that the
report estimates at $1 billion to $2 billion. (‘Hidden Costs Double
Price of Two Wars, Democrats Say’)
The committee which produced the report includes House
and Senate members from both parties. But it is chaired by a
Democrat and its conclusions are certain to be challenged by
the Republican administration of President George W Bush.
Some early grumbling struck the familiar note that criticism of
Mr Bush’s war policies is the sign of the quisling.
A spokesman for Senator Sam Brownback, of Kansas, the
committee’s senior Republican senator, told the Post: “It sure
seems that the [Democratic] Senate leadership is trying to
protect their continual proclamations of defeat instead of
working for bipartisan progress.”
The committee’s chairman, Sen Charles E Schumer, Democrat of
New York, was less interested in attitudes than in the statistics. In
a statement on the eve of the report’s publication Mr Schumer
said: “What [it] makes crystal clear is that the cost to our country
in lives lost and dollars spent is tragically unacceptable.”
The Washington Post’s Josh White provided some com-
parisons of the costs of US participation in recent wars.
According to Congressional Research Service reports, the
Vietnam War cost $600 billion in today’s dollars; the 1991
Persian Gulf War, $80 billion. WorldWar II is estimated to have
cost $4.9 trillion in today’s dollars.
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The California fires
Downed power lines were responsible
for some of the worst blazes,
but the cost of subterranean lines is steep
The wildfires that raged through Southern California last fall
claimed their 10 th victim on 13th November, with reports of the
death of a Mexican man who died of burns sustained in an effort
to cross the US border illegally. In just four days in late October,
the blazes burned 410,000 acres and forced at least a half-
million people to flee their homes – the largest evacuation in
California history. The economic toll is yet to be fully reckoned;
but, calculated on the basis solely of property destroyed, the
fires caused at least $1 billion in damage in San Diego County
alone. That figure – which is expected to rise – does not include
business and commercial losses.
In the Los Angeles Times, staff writer Joe Mozingo said that
downed power lines were suspected of having caused at least
five of the 12 major fires, including the notorious Witch fire that
burned nearly 200,000 acres, destroyed 1,041 houses, and killed
two people. He framed a pertinent question in stark terms:
Should utilities do more to prevent failures, particularly in wild-
land areas prone to high wind? And are rate payers willing to
pay the bill? (‘Downed Power Lines: a Fiery Culprit Only Money
Can Stop,’ 4th November)
The danger inherent in above ground high-voltage lines is
obvious. The lines can start fires when they cross, touch tree
branches, or hit the ground, causing the electrical current to arc
in explosions of sparks. High winds and dry weather heighten the
danger. But the subject is apparently not much discussed among
people accustomed to ignoring threats to the SoCal lifestyle.
Los Angeles County supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky told the Times:
“The utilities and the public sector need to come to the mountain
and realise there is an issue here that needs to be addressed.”
California does require utilities to clear brush and meet pole
strength standards to help prevent downed power lines.
But according to Mr Mozingo regulators say the only sure-
fire way to remove the fire threat is to replace overhead lines
with underground lines. Both Southern California Edison and
San Diego Gas & Electric told him this would cost a minimum of
$1 million a mile, and much more in remote, rocky areas.
Some money is earmarked by regulators for burying lines, but
the allotment falls far short of the need. Mr Mozingo noted
that Edison alone has more than 70,000 miles of overhead
lines in its 50,000m² service area, which covers all or parts of
11 counties in Southern and Central California. Burying those lines
would ensure safety from power-line fires stoked by high winds.
But even in one of the highest-income areas in the country,
it comes down to money – and public will.
The concentration of news coverage on the loss of life and
private property to the wildfires tended to obscure the
danger to the manufacturing sector, which is crucial to
the economy of the five counties that make up Southern
California.
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