U.S. Campaign Against Islamic State Likely Nearing $1B

[Purveyor]

By Dan Lamothe
The Washington Post
© September 30, 2014

WASHINGTON

The United States has likely spent between $780 million and $930 million in its military campaign against the Islamic State militant group so far, and it will likely cost between $200 million and $320 million per month going forward if conducted with about 2,000 U.S. service members on the ground, according to a report published Monday.

Those costs would grow to between $350 million and $570 million per month if the pace of the airstrikes increases and 5,000 U.S. troops are deployed, according to the report, released by the independent Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. On an annual basis, lower-intensity air operations could cost $2.4 billion to $3.8 billion per year, the report said. The annual cost would jump to between $4.2 billion and $6.8 billion if the pace of airstrikes increases and is sustained.

The report was released after the United States reported completing about 220 airstrikes in Iraq since Aug. 8, and about 40 more in Syria since they began there early Sept. 23. In addition to the airstrikes, the U.S. Navy also has launched at least 47 Tomahawk cruise missiles, which each cost more than $1 million, into Syria. Most of those were aimed at targets affiliated with the Khorasan Group, which U.S. officials say is affiliated with al-Qaida and which was planning "imminent" attacks against the United States and other Western nations.

more...

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/09/us-campaign-against-islamic-state-likely-nearing-1b

[Purveyor]

1. No wonder food assistance/safety net programs are being cut. Russia/China must

be laughing their asses off watching the US slowly self-destruct. Of course we took great glee when it happened to the USSR, now didn't we?

New War 22 Billion yr, meanwhile $8.7 B Cut in Food Stamps causes Families to Lose $90 per month

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025598708

[merrily]

2. So, about 15 billion, then?

But, that's not counting the cost of maintaining the MIC.

If you throw in the costs of the CIA, the Department of War, including the military and all its toys, the FBI, Fatherland Security, NASA, the TSA, the Secret Service and the security force of every federal department that has its own, the national guard, etc. plus mercenaries, "we" spend one hell of a lot of money on "defense." Year in and year out. For a very long time.

Yet, knowing about Bin Laden, the bureaucracy was two (supposedly "only" two) years behind in translating Arabic phone calls when the WTC got hit for the second time? Tips to more than one federal agency about the perps taking odd flying lessons "fell between the cracks?" No one ramped up security on planes, even to the point of cockpit doors that locked because....airline profits?

We "had" to go to war in Iraq with the army we had, not the army we wanted--and the army we had did not have armored vehicles in the land of IEDs?

Not one but two, tips from the Russian government naming the Tsarnaev brothers also "fell between the cracks" because they get "too many" tips? (Really? Too many tips from the government of foreign nations to follow up on?)

The White House gets shot into and a housekeeper has to find the breakage weeks later before anyone admits it? A guy with a knife practically gets within carving distance of the President's desk? And they try to lie to America initially, claiming that he "only" got to the portico?

And the likes of Peterson and Koch think SNAP and Medicare are a bad deal?