How much did the Iraq War help keep unemployment low, then keep it high?
In finishing my book on recessions, I came to a part where this question popped into my head. During President Bush II's term, unemployment hit a historic low of 4.something %. How much of that was due to all the troops being in Iraq? After President Obama got a handle on the recession Bush left him, unemployment has been hovering around 8%, how much of that is due to troops he brought home from Iraq? (BTW, did you know Obama's first time unemployment numbers are better than Bush II's at this point in his Presidency? Go figure)
The defense spending in the Bush years related to the Iraq War and the "War on Terror" kept certain quarters heavily employed. The US military was completely moved around and billions were spent on facilities and new technologies. The creation of the DHS and reorganization of US Customs and Border Protection led to heavy construction on the borders, though only a few companies got most of this money. His re-alignment and closure of many military bases resulted in more military construction on the remaining military bases. He bankrupted the treasury in doing all of this, but the fields of defense contracting did very well and kept good deal of people employed.
by Susan Reid 13 years ago
Oh no! Our commander in chief's strategies have now killed the #1 and the #2 al-Quaeda leaders. Don't you just hate when that happens??Funny how we here zero, zippo, nada anymore about the "war on terror" while our POTUS quietly goes about his businesses taking out the leaders.I know many...
by Leslie McCowen 11 years ago
I would personally like to thank Prez Obama for NOT taking us back into war. Anyone join me?I am constantly worried, with the spy-ops....oooops, psy-ops, we have thrown at us, and the huge media conglomerate who always gives front and center stage to war-mongering idiots. No More! Our kids deserve...
by Kathryn L Hill 11 years ago
6/12/14: "Rampaging Islamic jihadists surged within 60 miles of Baghdad as the U.S. scrambled ... to airlift hundreds of Americans to safety." "...the Al Qaeda-inspired forces seized control of several cities — and warned the capital was next."6/13/14:The U.S. ordered an...
by Deforest 10 years ago
As Iraq descends into chaos again, more than a decade after "Mission Accomplished," media commentators and politicians have mostly agreed upon calling the war a "mistake." But the "mistake" rhetoric is the language of denial, not contrition: it minimizes the Iraq War’s...
by Stacie L 13 years ago
"It is sad and disappointing to watch Pres. Obama trample on the successes of the middle-class by taking credit for auto's recovery. Obama acts as if he built and designed the cars today that are outselling their foreign competitors. Republicans and in fact most Americans recognize that credit...
by ExpandYourMind 14 years ago
Did President Obama compromise too much in extending the Bush tax cuts to all, while continuing...unemployment benefits. Is there a better solution to satisfy all parties?
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |