As a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, a newly interested individual in the world of infographics, and on the heels of The Hurt Locker winning best picture, I thought it would be cool to look up information graphics showing the cost of the Iraq War and put them into one place. This is by no means an exhaustive list, nor is it intended to be, but rather what I could put together after rapidly scouring the internets.
If you have or know of any I’ve missed throw the link up in the comments and I’ll add it to the post. To be clear, this is intended to be informational and not political. I do, however, realize that seeing this information can rile up a political view or two…
Cost of the War in Iraq
Costofwar.com is a real time running tally of the cost of the war we are currently waging. It is set to reach its final amount of $1.05T on September 30, 2010, which is the last day of the Government’s fiscal year in 2010 and the last day of appropriated funds for both wars.
Hidden Costs of War
ny times In 2003, the cost of the war in Iraq was originally estimated to be $50B – $60B (B stands for billion). In 2007, the New York Times wrote a piece exploring What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy where they put an infographic together that related spending in Iraq to spending on domestic programs that can be viewed here. It is interesting to note that the sources for this story/graphic were Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes who, at that time, felt that the total cost of war would be around $2T (T stands for trillion).
good.is Why that is interesting is that the very next year, 2008, Good.Is cited Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes for the creation of this infographic where the estimated total cost of war was set at $3T (T still stands for trillion). What a difference a year makes, eh? Good.Is also animated the static infographic and threw in some narration, below, which is a great way to repurpose the information.
billion dollar gram One year later, August 2009, David McCandless created the Billion Dollar Gram, using the same $3T number, which shows spending in Iraq in relation to other interesting expenses and revenues throughout history.
energy consumption This last one is short and to the point, but I do not know where the data to support it comes from. Gavin Potenza put together a graphic that alludes to the costs of war, via energy consumption, by comparing the Iraq War to World War II. Although it doesn’t show dollar figures, it is a stark contrast that drives a point home.
Take Aways
First and foremost, war is expensive.
Second, it’s great that these graphics exist to help us understand the extent of that expense for the War in Iraq. It seems that, as human beings, we have a hard time getting our heads around large numbers without comparing and contrasting to other known numbers.
Third, after looking at these examples, a possible best practice in the production of cost based infographics is to relate the cost of the subject to costs of other known things.
Finally, Infographics based on speculation or money that cannot be accounted for and attributed to its actual source of cost, skate a fine line.
What are your take aways?
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