Can someone help me figure something out?

[LeftyFingerPop]

I am trying to come up with the INCREMENTAL annual monetary cost of maintaining our armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan vs. maintaining those same forces here. In other words, how much money, on an annual basis, could be cut from the defense budget if everyone was brought home?

[noamnety]

1. Here's a piece of the puzzle

Cost of deploying one U.S. soldier for one year in Iraq - $390,000

from http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/IraqNumbers.htm (within that, links to original source you may find helpful)

[LeftyFingerPop]

3. Thank you...here are some rough numbers...

112,000 in Iraq

100,000 in Afghanistan by mid 2010

Total 212,000 X $390,000 = $83 billion

$83 billion divided by $50,000 salary plus fringe benefits = around 2 million jobs created.

[Taitertots]

4. I think you have just proved that the wars are blocking economic recovery n/t

[LeftyFingerPop]

5. Yes, and the thing is...

those 2 million jobs would probably stimulate another few million.

[Taitertots]

6. Increased tax revenue would also reduce the actual cost of the program

The taxes paid by the first 2 million, then the next 1 million, the next 500,000 those jobs create, the next 250,000 they created.....

[LeftyFingerPop]

7. Yes, good point. n/t

[anarch]

8. it is a mathematical certainty n/t

[noamnety]

9. to refine them

you'd have to figure the cost of keeping a soldier on active duty in the US, and figure out how many are national guard or reserves - assuming they wouldn't be deployed. So it's not exactly the full $83 billion saved from that.

BUT ... there is also the cost of keeping the contractors there. I didn't check if that was included in the cost of keeping a soldier there - you'd have to go back to the source on that, but if the contract costs are above and beyond that, it would be substantial.

[Taitertots]

10. Even if they were recalled to the states and fired it would still be a 1,500,000+ net job gain n/t

[midnight]

2. K&R

[jeanpalmer]

11. The annual cost of each soldier in Afghanistan

was recently reported as a $1 million. Based on 100,000 soldiers there, that's enough money to pay $20,000 a year in unemployment benefits to 5 million people.