OPPORTUNITY COST

Joseph Stiglitz has calculated the cost of the Iraq war at $3 trillion, which is more money than the average African child will see in its whole life. And even in America, many children still go to bed without shoes.

If Bush had spent that $3,000,000,000,000 on shoes, no American child would ever have to wear the same shoes more than once. Or he could have bought everyone in Iraq an Aston Martin. Those would be the actions of a madman, of course, yet still more sensible than what he actually did do.