Watching the Democratic debate tonight, I listened when the candidates talked about how to cut the deficit.  Several of the candidates talked about how to work on helping education.  They also talked, of course, about the cost of the war.  And I had a little thought.  So I looked up the current cost of the Iraq war, then compared it to the average cost of one year at a public college or university. 

The average cost of the war, per year (as of today) is close to $100 billion.  The average cost of one year at a public college or university (tuition and fees only) is about $6000.  The total number of graduates each year was harder to find, but it appears to be less than 3 million students.

So a four year college education at a public institution for ALL high school students graduating this year would be ~$72 billion.  The total cost, to this point, for the war would have covered 5 years worth of graduates across this country.   Not one of which would have had to pay for their education.  Imagine what else their families might have used that money for.  Imagine what it would be like to have a generation of a families without any educational debt.  Imagine a country with 15 million more educated professionals working on problems like removing our dependence on oil.  Imagine what it would be like with 3495 more soldiers still proudly serving this country.

Okay, it's an oversimplification.  But it's a stunning realization of where this country thought it wanted to go 6 years ago.  And how much of a mistake that idea was.