Chart du Jour on the War

This chart shows funding provided through fiscal year 2007 for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and other activities associated with the war on terrorism, as well as related costs incurred by the VA for medical care, disability compensation and survivors’ benefits.

What is so striking is that the 2001 and 2002 expenditures were to fight the 9/11 perpetrators, as well as the Taliban. Then came the Iraq war. Just imagine if all of that money had gone into the real war and not the wrong war.

From Mark Thoma via Ezra Klein