From this week's Barron's

Apart from the anguishing, inexorable rise in the casualty toll, the cost of our engagement has been mounting remorselessly and, by year's end, cumulatively may well reach three-quarters of a trillion dollars. Ironically, but not surprisingly, as David Rosenberg of Merrill Lynch recently observed, the enormous expenditures necessary have acted as a significant stimulus to the economy.

But the bill, as it were, for the whole messy business has merely been deferred. The uncalculated but obviously humongous price, in economic drag and budgetary strains, will have to be paid, most likely, of course, on the next president's watch.