Washoe Iraq costs pass billion

“Roy Hobbs” in the Roger Towne and Phil Dusenberry screenplay of The Natural: “I guess some mistakes you never stop paying for.”

Last month marked the 11th anniversary of the U.S. war on Iraq. The U.S. has supposedly extricated itself from that war, but it's hard to tell from the ongoing payments for it. According to the National Priorities Project, which tracks finances of U.S. military adventurism, as of April 4 at 2:17 p.m., the cost to U.S. taxpayers of the Iraq war hit $818,275,977,147 and it is still rising by $365,297 an hour.

By that same date, the cost to Reno taxpayers had hit $678,648,086—that's two and a half times the cost of the Reno railroad trench—and the counter is still running at $303 an hour.

Also by that date, the taxpayers of Washoe County had paid $1,368,322,901 for the war and that amount is rising by $612 an hour.

When we last checked these numbers, in September (“The meter's still running,” RN&R, Sept. 12, 2013), the national figure was $814,086,482,000 and the Reno figure was $676,862,107.