There’s a very interesting piece in the current (4/8/06) issue of The Economist about the cost of the Iraq war. As well as costing the war itself, it menations a study that attempts to cost NOT going to war against Iraq.

“A war costing $410 billion-630 billion sounds pretty grim. But the three University of Chicago economists also evaluate a wide span of possible outcomes if America had chosen the alternative to war. Their analysis includes four pre-war scenarios for containment and a range of probabilities for various contingencies. These suggest that reining in Iraq and hoping for the best could reasonably have been expected to cost $250 billion-700 billion.”

The whole thing is here, but only if you’re a subscriber.