For the price of the Iraq War, we could've bought each soldier involved in the initial invading coalition their weight in platinum, gold, and BlackBerry pearl 8100s.
The initial invading force consisted of 297000 soldiers -- 250000 from America, 45000 from the UK, 2500 from Australia, and 194 from Poland. Assuming that each soldier weighs 180 lbs, the total weight of the soldiers was 53.5 million pounds.
There are about 14.6 troy ounces in a pound. Platinum currently costs $1417 per ounce, or $20700 per pound. Gold currently costs $823 per troy ounce, or $12000 per pound. The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 costs $300 and weighs 3.16 ounces, for a price of $1500 per pound. At these prices, we could've bought each soldier their weight in platinum, gold, and BlackBerry Pearl 8100s for $1.83 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.
