First-of-its-kind cost of war counter already controversial
Facebook
Your News Now
Neil St. Clair
04/14/2010
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Length can be measured by rulers, weight on a scale, but more abstract concepts like war? How do we measure that?
One group thinks they have the answer! A $6,000 sign that will give the financial cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to taxpayers here in Broome County and the City of Binghamton.
"I hope that the sign itself can become a dialogue. To get to a subject which is at the heart of this, which is how much money are we spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Sue McAnanama, a member of the Cost of War Project.
Using government figures, the National Priorities Project, a liberal think tank says that amounts to around $808 million in Broome and more than $130 million in Binghamton since 2001.
The sign will be placed on City Hall; an attempt Mayor Matt Ryan says, to show all taxpayers what they're missing.
"With the money we spent since 2001, we can fund 2600 and something police officers for a whole year," said the mayor, a vocal advocate of the project.
While Mayor Ryan calculates that a reallocation of funds could mean more things like police and other civilian services, there are others who believe it's a miscalculation of the true cost of war.
"I was in Afghanistan in 2008 and 2009, and I know what that money was spent on," said Lt. Chris Marion, an Army National Guard member.
"It was used to protect soldiers and better the lives of oppressed Afghans," said Marion.
For some, reducing the moral totality to a financial balance sheet seems misplaced.
"We're looking at cost in terms of dollars and cents and I think the real cost of this war is in the lives lost," said George Shea, a Binghamton resident, who got into a heated argument with Mayor Ryan.
The peace advocates say they've tried shock and awe with casualty and mortality figures to little effect.
The sign, which was entirely privately funded, goes up next week. Mayor Ryan believes it is the first of its kind in the nation.
