http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1702037,00.html

See this same article also here:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0204-02.htm
Published on Saturday, February 4, 2006 by the Guardian/UK
Cost of Wars Soars to $440 Billion for US
· 20% increase in spending despite cut in troop levels
· Outlay will soon equal 13-year fight in Vietnam
by Julian Borger in Washington

Saturday February 4, 2006
The Guardian

Cost of wars soars to $440bn for US
by Julian Borger in Washington

· 20% increase in spending despite cut in troop levels
· Outlay will soon equal 13-year fight in Vietnam

The Bush administration has said it is planning to spend $120bn (£68bn)
on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars this year, bringing their total cost
so far to $440bn.

The spending request, which will soon be presented to Congress,
marks a 20% increase over last year, despite plans to draw down
US troop levels in both war zones in the coming months. The
administration also plans to ask for a downpayment of $50bn
on war costs next year. The requests are expected to pass easily.

The spending on the Iraq conflict alone is now approaching
the cost of the Korean war, about $330bn in today's dollars.
Meanwhile the cost of the overall "war on terror" - relabelled
The Long War in the Pentagon - is already close to half
a trillion dollars, and will soon equal that of the 13-year
Vietnam war.

"There is some reason to be surprised that it's this much,"
said Steven Kosiak, a military spending analyst at the Centre
for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington.
"The Congressional Budget Office had estimated the defence
department would need $85bn and that was with no drawdown
in troops."

A White House budget official, Joel Kaplan, said that some of
the extra spending would go towards keeping military equipment
going in the desert, to accelerate training of Iraqi forces,
and to give US troops better protection against roadside bombs.
The budget request did not include reconstruction spending.

The defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, once predicted that
the Iraq war would cost $50bn. George Bush's former economic
adviser, Lawrence Lindsey, was forced to resign for being
alarmist after predicting in 2002 that the Iraq war could
cost up to $200bn. Even before the new supplemental requests,
spending on the conflict in Iraq has reached $250bn.

Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate and Columbia University
economist, has calculated that the Iraq war could ultimately
cost $2 trillion, including lost productivity because of
casualties and foreign deployments of reservists, as well
as the long-term impact of disability payments and general
economic disruption.

The administration's low pre-war estimates assumed that
the invasion would be largely welcomed and coalition troops
would quickly be able to hand over to a new government in
Baghdad.

The money being earmarked for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan
is outside the normal defence budget. That budget for 2007
is $439bn, a 5% increase.

The budget will be delivered to Congress at the same time
as the Quadrennial Defence Review, in which the Pentagon
lays out its longer term strategy. The review envisages
the development of more mobile, specialised forces in smaller
units. There will be a 15% increase in special operations
forces, and a new air force drone squadron. Nearly 4,000 more
troops will be assigned to psychological operations and civil
affairs units.

Military experts have applauded the reforms but say the review
does not explain how they will be paid for. There is no mention
of cutting back on some of the huge and controversial equipment
in development, such as the F22 and F35 fighter planes and
the US navy's new DD(X) destroyer.

A British soldier from the 9th/12th Lancers has died following
a road traffic accident outside Basra, the Ministry of Defence
said yesterday. There was no suggestion of "hostile involvement".
It is the 101st British death of the war.

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