My newspaper this morning informed me that the war in Afghanistan has so far cost $17 billion. Out of curiousity, I consulted a putatively reliable source and did some math.

The population of Afghanistan as of July 1, 2001, was estimated to be 26,813,057 (I love the precision of that "57"). Since then, there's undoubtedly been a reduction ~ casualties, refugees, and so on. But I thought, heck, if they're going to be so precise, the least I can do is use that number.

So what, you ask, is $17 billion divided by 26,813,057? Well, it's about $634.02. Now according to our experts at the CIA, gross domestic product per capita of Afghanistan in July 2001 was approximately $800, a sizeable proportion of which was derived from poppies. Estimates of the cost of rebuilding the country range from a conservative 6.5 billion dollars up to 25 billion dollars, according to ReliefWeb.

Would we have gotten a better value for our money if every single Afghani had been given $634.02 worth of food, cash, and agricultural assistance? Would it have become less of a breeding ground for terrorists? Would we have captured Osama Bin Laden? ... Oh wait, scratch that last bit.

I'm not sorry the Taliban are out of power.

I am sorry that an incredibly poor country is now even farther in the hole.

And I'm even sorrier that so many innocents died.

Money's been pledged to help rebuild Afghanistan. I hope my country will do what's needed.

11:32:32 PM