The Cost of War

According to the Congressional Research Service, the first six days of military operations in Libya cost American taxpayers somewhere between $400 million and $1 billion. That's not a lot of money in the grand scheme of the federal budget. But the longer we stay, the more we'll spend. And what are we getting in return for this ongoing investment? That's hard to say when even President Obama doesn't seem to know why we chose to get involved. But in general, whenever politicians struggle to justify some form of government spending, it probably isn't worth it. 

(Via Adam Serwer and Steven Aftergood.)

Read Veronique de Rugy's 2008 Reason cover story on America's trillion-dollar war on terror.