Report: War costing US $12 BILLION a month

[wicket]

:cry:

LINK

The boost in troop levels in Iraq has increased the cost of war there and in Afghanistan to $12 billion a month, and the total for Iraq alone is nearing a half-trillion dollars, congressional analysts say.

All told, Congress has appropriated $610 billion in war-related money since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror assaults, roughly the same as the war in Vietnam. Iraq alone has cost $450 billion. The figures come from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which provides research and analysis to lawmakers.

For the 2007 budget year, CRS says, the $166 billion appropriated to the Pentagon represents a 40 percent increase over 2006. The Vietnam War, after accounting for inflation, cost taxpayers $650 billion, according to separate CRS estimates.

The $12 billion a month "burn rate" includes $10 billion for Iraq and almost $2 billion for Afghanistan, plus other minor costs. That's higher than Pentagon estimates earlier this year of $10 billion a month for both operations. Two years ago, the average monthly cost was about $8 billion.

Among the reasons for the higher costs is the cost of repairing and replacing equipment worn out in harsh conditions or destroyed in combat.

But the estimates call into question the Pentagon's estimate that the increase in troop strength and intensifying pace of operations in Baghdad and Anbar province would cost only $5.6 billion through the end of September.

[peacebird]

1. how much rebuilding would that finance for the Gulf Coast? how many free clinics could we fund?

How about using that money to rebuild the VA hospital system so that it can CARE for our wounded immediately, and pay subsidies so their families don't lose their jobs and homes when they come to the hospital to help their soldier?

How much GOOD could we be doing for America and for Iraq and Afghanistan if all that money was put to uses other than death and destruction?

[catmandu57]

2. Money thrown down a rathole

we just as well could have taken that and rebuilt the infrastructure, provided healthcare, rebuilt the gulf, a whole bunch of stuff.

[NNN0LHI]

3. That is a small price to pay to get millions of people to hate us for generations to come n/t

[spanone]

4. We need to find out how to make peace as profitable as war

that may be the only way to salvage this civilization

[lonestarnot]

8. Well for starters create some damn American jobs by going green.

[dkofos]

5. How much is actually going to the troops??

[wicket]

6. kick

:kick:

[genie_weenie]

7. This is money well spent

We are killing off children
We are thinning the american lesser classes
We are funding a massive merc army under the command of fundamentalist Erik Prince, as well as several small ones
We are transferring the wealth of America to Boeing, Halliburton, Blackwater, et al
We are setting up a puppet regime in order to siphon off the wealth of Iraq to ExxonMobil, BP
We are allowing contractors to construct buildings which fall apart in less than year, requiring the continued presence and money for contractors
We are creating copious amounts of propaganda for religious zealots to use in recruiting new ignorant fanatical soldiers of god (the other side)
We are destroying the semblance of republican democracy in the US

Great Job!

[wicket]

9. .

:kick:

[AnotherMother4Peace]

10. K&R - the awful truth. This money could have made the US energy independent.