Estimates of Iraq War Cost Were Not Close to Ballpark

From NYTimes.com: Estimates of Iraq War Cost Were Not Close to Ballpark

At the outset of the Iraq war, the Bush administration predicted that it would cost $50 billion to $60 billion to oust Saddam Hussein, restore order and install a new government.

Five years in, the Pentagon tags the cost of the Iraq war at roughly $600 billion and counting. Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and critic of the war, pegs the long-term cost at more than $4 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office and other analysts say that $1 trillion to $2 trillion is more realistic, depending on troop levels and on how long the American occupation continues.

This is Bush’s legacy, sticking the American public with a quagmire and a bill for 2-4 trillion dollars for a war that were fought for false pretenses.  There’s no connection between Al Qaeda and Iraq and Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction.  The war has diverted attention from fighting terrorists that roam Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Instead of creating a new breeding ground for terrorists, shouldn’t we have been out in force looking for Bin Laden?