$10 billion+++ per year for US in Afghanistan, says Patreaus:

[amborin]

"America’s involvement in Afghanistan could stretch on for years and cost upward of $10 billion annually just to finance an adequate Afghan security force, the overall commander in the region told Congress on Wednesday.

snip

On Tuesday, President Hamid Karzai, at a news conference with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, said Afghanistan would not be able to pay for its own security until at least 2024....

“We’re talking about $150 billion, just on the security side, before we get to the development side,” said Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey. He pressed the general on whether he concurred with Mr. Karzai’s timetable, but the general did not give a clear-cut answer.

snip

“Achieving progress in Afghanistan will be hard, and the progress there will likely be slower in developing than was the progress in Iraq,” General Petraeus said.

snip

.....there were limits to the ability of the United States to change the behavior of Mr. Karzai or other leaders. “Holding them accountable does not mean that a year from now or five years from now there will be zero corruption in Afghanistan,” Mr. Lew said.....

“What happens in Pakistan, particularly near the Afghan border, will do more to determine the outcome in Afghanistan than any increase in troops or shift in strategy,” he said.

But none of the three offered many concrete examples of how the administration could exercise leverage over the Pakistani military or government.

General Petraeus acknowledged that pouring more troops into Afghanistan would raise the risk of driving more militants across the border into Pakistan, where they could further destabilize that country. in the past.....


<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/world/asia/10policy.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=petraeus&st=cse>

[classysassy]

1. The day of the generals

[AlphaCentauri]

2. any tea bagger protesting spending?

[anonymous171]

3. Whatever happened to fiscal restraint? nt