What can you buy for $100,000/minute?

Hint: It resembles a quagmire, is extremely unpopular, has led to thousands upon thousands of deaths, both American and not, and has prompted the White House to engage in shameless misinformation and revisionism.

Yes, my friends, it's the Iraq War. And if you're American, that's your money going to pay for Bush's little expedition into the abyss of military preemption and regime change.

**********

The Seattle Times (from the L.A. Times) reports on the cost of the Iraq War -- you might want to sit down for this one:

The White House said Thursday that it plans to ask Congress for an additional $70 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, driving the cost of military operations in the two countries to $120 billion this year, the highest ever.

Most of the new money would pay for the war in Iraq, which has cost an estimated $250 billion since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

The additional spending, along with other war funding the Bush administration will seek separately in its regular budget next week, would push the price tag for combat and nation-building since Sept. 11, 2001, to nearly a half-trillion dollars, approaching the inflation-adjusted cost of the 13-year Vietnam War.

The cost of military operations in 2006 is $35 billion higher than what Congress had estimated a few months ago that the Defense Department would need this year. The higher costs are occurring even as the Pentagon is planning to reduce troop levels in Iraq in coming months, reflecting the continuing wear and damage to military equipment in desert combat, the need to upgrade protection for U.S. troops and the effort to train and equip Iraqi forces.

And, breaking it down:

Currently, the Defense Department says it is spending about $4.5 billion a month on the conflict in Iraq, or about $100,000 per minute.

Current spending in Afghanistan is about $800 million a month, or about $18,000 per minute.

So there you go. The numbers more or less speak for themselves, no?

(What would you do with $100,000/minute?)