Reward all Afghans and Pakistanis with 15x their income for helping us capture Osama

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've rewarded every Afghan and Pakistani with fifteen times their income if people from either nation helped us capture Osama Bin Laden.  

Pakistan has 165 million residents, and its annual per capita income is $1027.  Afghanistan has 32 million residents, and its annual per capita income is $335.  Rewarding the entire population of both countries with fifteen times their income for information leading to the capture of Osama Bin Laden would cost $2.70 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of over $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.  

Buy enough Fruit By The Foot to reach Pluto

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've bought enough Fruit By The Foot to reach Pluto.

Pluto's orbit averages 39.48 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The distance between the Earth and the Sun is 93 million miles. So the distance between the Earth and Pluto's orbit when Pluto is at its average distance from the Sun, and in the same direction from the Sun as the Earth, is 3.6 billion miles.

A case of Fruit By The Foot contains a total of 72 snacks, each of which extends to 3 feet when unrolled. Spanning the distance from Earth to Pluto would require 87 billion cases of Fruit By The Foot. Since each case of Fruit By The Foot can be purchased for $30, the total cost for reaching Pluto is $2.6 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

Lift all humans, pigs, and sheep into the air with helium

For the price of the Iraq War, we could have purchased enough crude helium to lift all humans, pigs, and sheep into the air.

There are 6.6 billion humans on the earth. If the average human weighs 150 lbs (likely to be an overestimation, as many humans are children), the total mass of all humans is 1 trillion lbs. There are about 1 billion sheep, which weigh roughly the same as humans, for a total sheep weight of 150 billion lbs. There are about 1 billion pigs, which weigh around 250 lbs as adults, for a total pig weight of at most 250 billion lbs.

If purchased directly from the Bureau of Land Management, helium costs $60 per thousand cubic feet this year. A thousand cubic feet of helium lifts 28.2 kilograms or 62 pounds, so the cost to lift one pound with helium is about $1. Lifting all humans, pigs, and sheep would then cost $1.4 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of over $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

Image adapted under a Creative Commons License from Sam the Sham.

Buy everybody in Orlando their own A-10 Thunderbolt

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've bought each resident of Orlando, Florida, their own military attack aircraft.

The population of Orlando is 227,907. The heavily armored A-10 Thunderbolt, used by the Air Force against tanks and other ground targets, costs $11.7 million. Equipping each resident of Orlando with their own A-10 Thunderbolt would cost $2.67 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of over $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

Build a bridge to the moon out of MacBooks

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've bought enough MacBooks for a bridge to the moon 2 MacBooks wide. (Then we could take them down and give eight of them to each American, and one to each Canadian.)

The moon is about 380,000,000 m from the surface of the earth. A MacBook is .325 meters long, so it would take 2.34 billion of them to reach the moon if laid end to end in two rows. At $1099 each, that would cost us $2.57 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

Image used under a Creative Commons license from Jeronimo Palacios.

Supply the Irish with beer for a millennium

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've supplied the Irish with beer for a thousand years.

Kirin estimates Irish beer consumption at 521 million liters per year, second in the world on a per capita basis. At this rate the Irish would drink 521 billion liters of beer per millennium. A twelve-pack of 330 ml Guinness bottles costs $16, and contains 4 liters of beer. At these prices we could provide the Irish with a millennium's worth of beer for $2.084 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

Image used under a Creative Commons license from Voss.

Run a jukebox since the time of the dinosaurs

For the price of the Iraq War, we could have run a jukebox from the time of the dinosaurs to the present.

The last dinosaurs existed 65 million years ago. There are 365 x 24 x 60 minutes=525,600 minutes in a year, which means it's been 34 trillion minutes since they existed. If the jukebox charges a dollar for three songs (as seems to be the average in Chicago), and our songs average four minutes in length, we get twelve minutes of music per dollar. At that rate, playing music from the time of the dinosaurs until the present costs $2.83 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of over $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

Cover New Hampshire and Vermont in gold leaf

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've covered the land area of Vermont and New Hampshire in gold leaf.

1 square meter of gold leaf can be generated by 2 grams of gold. At current prices, gold is worth $884 per troy ounce (31.1 grams). So it costs $56.85 for a square meter of gilding. New Hampshire is 24,239 square kilometers, while Vermont is 24,932 square kilometers, for a total area of 49,171 square kilometers or 49,171,000,000 square meters. Gilding the entire land area of these states comes to $2.80 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of over $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

A Toyota Prius for every American household

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've bought a brand-new Toyota Prius for every household in America.

According to the Census Bureau's projections for 2008, there are around 112 million households in America. (This includes family and non-family households.) MSRP for a fully loaded 2008 Toyota Prius is $23,770. Buying each household a fully loaded Prius would cost $2.66 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of over $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.