That’s how much will be spent on the Iraq war – money that could have been spent here at home. Say, rebuilding the parts of America destroyed by Katrina, which made landfall in New Orleans two years ago yesterday.

The never-tiring Mid-South Peace and Justice Center again focused attention on this foolhardy war at a rally Tuesday afternoon downtown.  Read more about it in my Thursday column here.

The picture above is from a similar rally in 2005, when 1,400 boots – one for every soldier killed thus far – were displayed outside the National Civil Rights Museum. Back then, the entire exhibit was small enough to travel from city to city. Now, the boots would fill two tractor trailers, so each state displays a pair of boots for every soldier killed from that particular state. In Tennessee, that number is 81.