Economy a victim of war:Connecting all the dots

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All the polls show that economic problems have surpassed the Iraq war as the top concern among Democrats and Republicans alike. But no candidate has yet connected the dots to show the direct causal links between that war and our myriad economic woes.

Such a lesson just might help reshape our priorities.

First, take the high price of oil. It was $25 per barrel right before the war, with gasoline at about $1.50 a gallon. Now oil hits $110 per barrel and gasoline approaches $4. When oil goes up it boosts the price of every other product that requires transportation—notably food and other essentials. That's called an "inflationary pressure."

This war is now 5 years old—and will be the most expensive in history apart from World War II, according to Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Laureate economist. Stiglitz demonstrates that our Iraq adventure will cost more than $3 trillion—far, far more than Bush or the Pentagon will admit. (Remember how former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told us Iraqi oil would pay the costs of the war?)

How much is $3 trillion? More than $10,000 for every man, woman and child in America.

From a federal surplus in 2000, we plunged into a steep national deficit. Stiglitz estimates that deficit will increase by at least $1 trillion because of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. This dramatically limits our options for dealing with other economic problems, such as the subprime mortgage crisis that has financial institutions teetering and thousands of people losing their homes.

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