Pearl Little

Historical GDP Numbers: 1947-Present

It looks to me as if most US wars in fact brought about low growth. The beginning of a war often caused a bounce in growth by increasing military spending, but by the end of the war this growth generally ceased and was followed by a period of no growth. Only when there was a longer period of peace did GDP show steady growth, thus we can expect and in fact we see that Iraq II is bringing about the typical, though this time much worse recession. And we shouldn't expect much growth until we have a period of extended peace.