cost of war

Just for those of you who aren't aware of it, please take note of my gnarly new counter on the top right. It's running a javascript based on an algorithim that some brains at the national priorities project came up with to show how much money the U.S. has spent on the Iraq War through the present moment. If you click the link under it, you can visit their website (costofwar.com) and see their comparisons to, for instance, the costs of education, food, etc for just this country. Or for another comparison, Economist Jeffrey Sachs estimates that we could control malaria (Killer of 1.3-3 million annually, mostly among the poor) for a mere $3 billion per year. Try not to stare too long at this counter. When I first saw I it I was sort of mesmerized by it for about a week.