Going to war is easy…everyone gets emotional, and we decide to take out <whomever>. War doesn’t end on the day we declare peace. Taking care of the soldiers who went to war is a lifetime cost. We are still paying out disability pensions and VA health bills for veterans of WW2.

In WW2, we had a lot more fatalities and lot more injuries because of the state of medicine in those days.  It is the opposite these days. We have a lot more injuries than fatalities. A dead soldier is tragic-but an injured soldier who needs help and care for life is even more tragic.

And very, very expensive.

Did we really think about what war would cost us before we went in all guns blazing?

Here NPR talks about  a woman who went off to fight in Iraq. Post-discharge, she needs a lot of health care. I think that her medical bills will cost us $5 million over her lifetime. She has earned the care, no doubt about that.