How much will the Iraq War cost the U.S. taxpayer?  

On August 1, CNN reported the latest estimates of the cost of the Iraq War are $480 billion more, bringing the total Iraq War cost to $1 trillion.  The war costs $10 billion a month.

It was Paul Wolfowitz, joining with Bush, Cheney and Richard Perle, who engaged in such a rush to launch the Iraq War.  Paul Wolfowitz claimed that the Iraq oil revenue would pay for the cost of the war.

Of course, Wolfowitz was wrong.  The U.S. taxpayer is funding the Iraq War.  The oil contract the U.S. leadership wants calls for foreign investors to control 63 of Iraq's oil wells, leaving 17 under Iraqi control.  

Rome celebrated spectacular killing events at the Colosseum.  Watching a lion tear apart a Christian was great sport.

Likewise the U.S.A. does some things in an unprecedented spectacular manner.  Certainly dropping the atom bomb following Japan's refusal to accept unconditional surrender during the last days of World War Two calls into question a fateful decision.

Should President Truman have allowed Japan to keep its emperor, whom they considered divine or incinerate Hiroshima and Nagasaki residents when this request was refused?

This remains a debatable question mark in U.S. history.  Some claim the atom bomb attacks saved scored of U.S. lives by ending the war early.  Then came the Vietnam War, spawned dramatically with the domino theory.  Politicians insisted that if Communists weren't stopped in Vietnam then all of Asia would definitely collapse like a row of dominoes.

IRAQ = $$$$$$$$$$

while not terribly suprising, still much more than anyone could have imagined...

   The real cost to America of the Iraq war is likely to be between $1 trillion and $2 trillion, up to 10 times more than previously thought, according to a report written by a Nobel prize-winning economist and a Harvard budget expert.