The most recent funding request by Bush would bring the total Iraq war expenditures to $611 billion. Boston.com got to wondering what exactly $611 billion could buy, and it's pretty amazing to see the kinds of afflictions that could have been addressed by diverting funds away from the war and to more pertinent and popular avenues.
The most interesting purchase is a buyout on world poverty. The World Bank estimates that "$54 billion a year would eliminate starvation and malnutrition globally by 2015, while $30 billion would provide a year of primary education for every child on earth. At the upper range of those estimates, the $611 billion cost of the war could have fed and educated the world's poor for seven years."
Read more:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/gallery/251007war_costs/