$90.13/bbl

Oil falls on Bernanke comments
By JOHN WILEN, AP Business Writer
17 Jan 2008
NEW YORK - ... Light, sweet crude for February delivery fell 71 cents to settle at $90.13 on the New York Mercantile Exchange ...

If we'd started paying Saddam $90.13/bbl for all Iraq's oil on 18 March 2003 (the day we launched Operation Iraqi Freedom), we'd have paid $477,509,000,000 through today. (This assumes pre-war Iraq production of 3Mn bbls/day, a bit on the high side.)

$90.13 represents close to a 200% premium over market price in March 2003 - Saddam would have been a fool to turn down the deal.

How much have we spent on the war, from 18 Mar 2003 through today?
From National Priorities Project:
$486,540,000,000.

... about $9,000,000,000 MORE than the proposed oil deal with Saddam!

... AND: we'd have all Iraq's oil at pre-war production levels! We could simply GIVE IT AWAY.

Stop the madness.