The art of the deal, Jeb Bush Style

"I'll tell you, though, taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a good deal.” — Jeb Bush recently on CNN

Such a deal! 

Here are some of the details of the cost to “take out” Saddam Hussein and then attempt to cope with the aftermath:

American soldiers who died in Iraq 4,486

American soldiers wounded in combat in Iraq: 32,226 

 excluding "injuries or death due to the elements, self-inflicted wounds, combat fatigue" -- and also excluding "cumulative psychological and physiological strain or many of the other wounds, maladies and losses that are most common among Iraq veterans.”]

 Iraqi civilians killed: 134,000 (minimum estimate)

Dollar cost to date: over $2 trillion ($2,000,000,000,000)

Eventual interest payable by U.S. taxpayers on interest expenses owed for money borrowed on the Bush Administration’s “credit card” for the war:  $4 trillion  ($4,000,000,000,000)

Fringe benefits: Reinvigoration of Islamic militants. Establishment  of ISIS in Iraq. Destruction of the Iraqi healthcare system, much of $212 billion in U.S. Taxpayer’s contribution to Iraqi reconstruction “largely” blown, “with most of that money spent on security, or lost to waste and fraud.”

P.S. In 1992, Mother Jones magazine examined the Bush family’s business dealings. With respect to Jeb, after detailing several shady deals, it spoke to a prosecutor who dealt with Jeb’s association with Miguel Recarey. He told them that in considering whether Jeb was a crook, or merely stupid, he concluded that Jeb was stupid.

Cross-posted at The New York Crank