“The drive for war [in Iraq] was not helped when [President] Bush saw on September 16 [2002] that Lawrence Lindsey, his top economics adviser, had told the Wall Street Journal that it could cost $100 billion to $200 billion. In fact, Lindsey was just thinking out loud, not offering a formal projection. He was actually saying that war costs would not have a major economic impact and would be worth it to protect the country from future attack even if it cost between 1 percent and 2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, which at the time would mean $100 billion to $200 billion. The [first] Gulf War had cost 1 percent of gross domestic product, and Vietnam between 1.5 percent and 2 percent.”
– Peter Baker, Days of Fire, Page 219