The Iraq War's impact on the US economy.

I am no economist, but I have been trying to make the argument to my friends and colleagues over the last few months that US reckless spending on the War in Iraq has been a major, albeit hidden, factor in causing the US economic slowdown. Most news coverage I watch carries an undertone of blaming irresponsible consumers who borrowed money they couldn't pay back, without a fair enough dose of blaming irresponsible lenders, regulators, and government leaders for allowing it to happen. But now, I have a Nobel Prize-winning economist helping me make my argument, placing a healthy dollop of blame on the Bush Administration's nearly unlimited spending on the War in Iraq.