Iraq: What's the real cost?

The Iraq War is over four years old and has cost billions of dollars, thousands of lives, and the Republicans Congress. It has shattered dreams of Iraqis and American soldiers and demonstrated the depth of dishonesty to which a politician would sink to start a war.

In addition to the traditional casualty count and war spending tally, here's a few other ways to measure the cost of Iraq:

• Money spent on the armed forces
  
• Your tax dollars spent on the war
  
• American/Coalition killed
• American/Coalition wounded
• Iraqi security forces and civilians killed
• The lost innocence of American soldiers
• The lost approval rating
• More terrorists
• Less rule of law
  
• Total spending including veteran care and restoring the army to readiness