Editorial: A costly mission

A trillion bucks is what we will have spent in Iraq and Afghanistan by the end of next year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Divided by the approximate population of the United States, that is $3,333 per person. About half the people in America do not work due to being too young, too old, disabled or just choosing not to work.

That means the rest of us pay a lot.

The per capita amount multiplied by the approximate population of Iredell County is about $483 million. If a high school costs about $20 million, then $438 million would build 24 high schools.

That is a lot of money and would solve the school facilities problem.

Federal spending is paid back by devaluation of the dollar, higher taxes, less government services, less money in private investments and, of course, passing along debt to the next generation. A dollar spent there is a dollar not spent here.

A bigger question is: How many is 4,000? That is the number of soldiers who have been killed in the war. An average high school graduating class is about 250 students. That means we would lose all the graduates from an average high school for 16 years.

History will ask if the war was worth it. You may believe the Revolutionary War and World War II were worth it, but the Civil War and Vietnam were not.

Regardless of how history measures this war or where you stand on the issue, a real price is being paid in dollars and lives.