"The war was now the second-most expensive in US history after World War II and the second-longest after Vietnam, he said.

"A few days' funding would be enough to provide health insurance for US children who were not covered, he said.

"The public had been encouraged by the White House to ignore the costs of the war because of the belief that the war would somehow pay for itself or be paid for by Iraqi oil or US allies.

My father maintains that the last war the United States fought was WWII. Everything since then has been an intrusion, a raid, an INVASION...

"HE Iraq war ... was a central cause of the sub-prime banking crisis"

That about the stupitest thing I've ever heard. The mortgage crisis was caused by a bunch of overgreedy bankers giving mortgages to bad risk borrowers -- loans the bankers _knew_ they couldn't afford to repay. Surprise surprise... the people with bad credit couldn't afford their too-high interest only ARMs.