THE REAL COST OF THE IRAQ WAR May 19 2004 UK

From the "Daily Miror"
Your bill so far is £2.75bn, that could have paid for .. - 280 new schools - 7,236 hospital beds - Training for 12,200 doctors - 5 new hospitals - 2,750 MRI cancer scanners - 132,000 police recruits' salary - 80,000 teachers' salaries - 154,000 nurses' salaries - Training for 70,500 new nurses - 3.3m heart bypasses

IT COULD have paid for over three million heart bypass operations, trained over 70,000 nurses or built 280 badly-needed schools.

It would have met the salaries of 154,000 new nurses or 132,000 police officers for a year.

Instead, £2.75billion has been spent on a war in Iraq which has cost the lives of 833 American and British service personnel, countless more Iraqis, and hasn't made the world a safer place.

This week, figures from the government revealed we are spending £125million on the conflict every month - and there are fears from opposition MPs that the final bill could top £10billion.

That would pay for half a million new police officers or build 20 hospitals.

Defence experts are warning the actual price to Britain could be even higher, as many hidden costs are not accounted for.