How much did it cost the United States to finally find and kill Osama bin Laden? The simple answer is months of careful planning, a brave decision by President Barack Obama, a lot of military skill and guts by the US Navy Seals and a few million dollars for equipment, fuel and the write-off of a helicopter. The political bill, in relations with Pakistan, may take longer to come in.
However, the alarming longer answer is that it has cost more than US$1 trillion, and maybe as much as US$3 to US$5 trillion if all the costs of the 'war on terrorism' are properly accounted for. Bin Laden is dead, but those costs continue and raise huge questions about the financial and economic competence of the US government.
The very size of the sums takes - or should have taken - the discussion out of the philosophy or political science classes and into the real realm of congressional and parliamentary finance and budget committee debates, and active business forums. After all, this is real spending of real taxpayer dollars and real changes in business and lifestyle behaviours of Americans and those they deal with.
Sadly, much of the decision-making and the spending has been hushed up under the guise of national security, meaning that money gets spent without proper questioning, let alone the sort of cost-benefit analysis that other government departments and all respectable businesses are regularly expected to do.
Governments strictly speaking do not go bankrupt, least of all that of the United States. Nevertheless, the US is bleeding and is spending its money unwisely.
Economists including former World Bank vice-president Joe Stiglitz have questioned the massive spending on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, claiming controversially that their cost will be US$3 trillion when everything is added up.