1/4/2010 Trillion-dollar war: Afghanistan and Iraq …

The IoS Christmas A ppeal: 'The children we re burne d a nd screa m ing'

Trillion-dollar war: Afghanistan and Iraq set to

cost more than Vietnam and Korea
By Leonard Doyle in Washington

Wednesday, 24 October 2007

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President George Bush will have spent more than $1 trillion on military adventures by the time he leaves
office at the end of next year, more than the entire amount spent on the Korean and Vietnam wars combined.

There are also disturbing signs that Mr Bush is preparing an attack on Iran during his remaining months in
office. He has demanded $46bn (£22.5bn) emergency funds from Congress by Christmas and included w ith it
a single sentence requesting money to upgrade the B-2 "stealth" bomber.

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By wrapping his request in the flag of patriotism, the President has made it very difficult even for an anti-war
Congress to refuse the money. He was accompanied by the family of a dead US marine when he made the
request for funds on Monday.

The House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has attacked the President's priorities saying: "For the cost of less than 40
days in Iraq, we could provide health care coverage to 10 million children for an entire year."
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1/4/2010 Trillion-dollar war: Afghanistan and Iraq …

"The President is happy to put the military spending on the national credit card," said Steve Kosiak, a vice-
president of the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, an independent, military policy research
institute, w ho said that the $1trn figure will soon be passed.

The full amount requested for this fiscal year is now $196.4bn. The US is on course to spend a total of
$806bn fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, more than on any war it has fought since the Second World War.
With interest payments this tops $1trn.

Despite their expense, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are less of an economic burden (at 4.2 per cent of
GDP) than earlier wars. The 1990-91 Gulf War cost $88bn, the Korean War cost $456bn (12.2 per cent of
GDP) and the Vietnam War, $518bn (9.4 per cent of GDP). By comparison the Second World War cost more
than 40 per cent of GDP.

Mr Kosiak also points out that the military is using the cover of w ars in Afghanistan and Iraq to get funding for
all sorts of projects. The upgrade of the stealth bomber is one of those projects.

The Pentagon wants to upgrade its fleet of stealth bombers so that they can deliver 30-tonne, satellite-
guided bombs. The planes would be based on the British Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia w here hangars
are being specially upgraded. These "bunker-buster" bombs are six times bigger than anything used by the
air force and designed to destroy weapons of mass destruction facilities underground. Diego Garcia is also
much closer to Iran than Missouri, where the bombers are based.

This w eekend Vice-President Dick Cheney stepped up the rhetoric, warning of "serious consequences" if Iran
refuses to stop enriching uranium and said the US would not permit it to get nuclear weapons. Iran denies
that the enrichment is linked to a nuclear weapons programme and says it is entirely peaceful.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, who was in Washington for talks with the US Secretary of State,
Condoleezza Rice, yesterday w ould not be drawn on Mr Cheney's remarks.

Mr Bush's request for an extra $46bn in funds by Christmas has angered Congress, but it is expected to be
approved.

This year's request for extra military spending is already the largest since 11 September 2001 and rising fast.

The lion's share of the money Mr Bush has asked for is for the Pentagon. Some has also been earmarked for
UN peacekeeping in Darfur, emergency food aid in Africa and sending oil to North Korea as part of a deal to
end its nuclear weapons programme.

* The US State Department has been harshly criticised for failing to oversee the private security companies it
relies on in Iraq.

An internal review found poor supervision and accountability for companies such as Blackwater USA as well as
DynCorp.

An audit of DynCorp says its record keeping is so poor that the State Department cannot account for $1.2bn
(£590m) it paid the company since 2004 to train Iraqi police officers.

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Comments
( Le a ve a com m e nt )

Oyun Forum
aslanbeyto wrote :
Saturda y, 2 January 2010 a t 06:46 pm (UTC)

Thank you for your news ..

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cost of war
wichywoo wrote :
Sunday, 3 Ja nua ry 2010 a t 02:08 am (UTC)

wow thats a lot of money . i wander whos cashing in the cheque the lucky fella .

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1/4/2010 Trillion-dollar war: Afghanistan and Iraq …
Being sarcastic or still piss-drunk from the New Years' party?
findempire_ii wrote :
Sunday, 3 Ja nua ry 2010 a t 12:32 pm (UTC)

"There are also disturbing signs that Mr Bush is preparing an attack on Iran during his remaining months in office."
"This weekend Vice-President Dick C heney stepped up the rhetoric, warning of "serious consequences""

WTF???? Hey if you're trying to say different asshole, same old shit, I agree. War, unemployment, deficits, global
warming - new boss worse than the old boss, no argument there.

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