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10-24-2007, 05:49 PM
ABC http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/25/2069610.htm?section=justin
Iraq, Afghan wars could cost US$2.4 trillion: report
Posted 1 hour 6 minutes ago
The total cost of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could reach $US2.4 trillion ($2.4 trillion) by 2017, a report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said.
The estimate added a new note of rancour to the US political debate over Iraq, two days after President George W Bush angered anti-war Democrats by requesting nearly $US200 billion dollars more in emergency war funding.
For the first time, the estimates included the huge costs of financing government borrowing used to finance the wars.
CBO director Peter Orszag, said the "bottom line" figure of war spending would be $US2.4 trillion under most intense scenarios of military activity, if future costs were not offset by higher taxes or lower spending.
"That is the highest number that is contained in our testimony, I don't know whether it is a worst case scenario," he told the House of Representatives Budget Committee.
Committee chairman John Spratt said costs of the wars, which the Bush administration styles as twin fronts of the "war on terror," were huge and rising.
"One can quibble with these assumptions and with the methodology, but no one can contest the enormous cost incurred so far in Iraq, or the likelihood that these costs will keep being incurred into the immediate future," he said.
But the top Republican on the committee Paul Ryan said that while the costs were large, they paled in contrast to military spending during past foreign policy crises.
"We are well below the 50-year average ... we do have a real conflict on our hands that is not going away any time soon."
The CBO, which provides non-partisan budget analysis for Congress, said higher estimates for spending for the wars could start at $US1.2 trillion and top out at $US1.7 trillion by the end of the next ten year period.
Under the most intense scenarios of US military activity, a further $US705 billion could be added to the cost by interest payments, assuming the wars continue to be largely financed by government borrowing, the report said.
The calculations were based on estimated costs up to 2007 for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and other war on terror spending.
They also included related spending on medical care and disability compensation for veterans, and survivors benefits and aid for building up foreign armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The CBO projected the total cost over the next 10 years under two scenarios, one with a sharp drawdown of US troops abroad, the other under a more gradual drawdown.
The first scenario envisaged 30,000 troops being deployed abroad in the "war on terror" would decline to 30,000 by the beginning of the fiscal year 2010.
Under the second more intense model, US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq would be drawn down to 75,000 by fiscal year 2013.
-AFP
Iraq, Afghan wars could cost US$2.4 trillion: report
Posted 1 hour 6 minutes ago
The total cost of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could reach $US2.4 trillion ($2.4 trillion) by 2017, a report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said.
The estimate added a new note of rancour to the US political debate over Iraq, two days after President George W Bush angered anti-war Democrats by requesting nearly $US200 billion dollars more in emergency war funding.
For the first time, the estimates included the huge costs of financing government borrowing used to finance the wars.
CBO director Peter Orszag, said the "bottom line" figure of war spending would be $US2.4 trillion under most intense scenarios of military activity, if future costs were not offset by higher taxes or lower spending.
"That is the highest number that is contained in our testimony, I don't know whether it is a worst case scenario," he told the House of Representatives Budget Committee.
Committee chairman John Spratt said costs of the wars, which the Bush administration styles as twin fronts of the "war on terror," were huge and rising.
"One can quibble with these assumptions and with the methodology, but no one can contest the enormous cost incurred so far in Iraq, or the likelihood that these costs will keep being incurred into the immediate future," he said.
But the top Republican on the committee Paul Ryan said that while the costs were large, they paled in contrast to military spending during past foreign policy crises.
"We are well below the 50-year average ... we do have a real conflict on our hands that is not going away any time soon."
The CBO, which provides non-partisan budget analysis for Congress, said higher estimates for spending for the wars could start at $US1.2 trillion and top out at $US1.7 trillion by the end of the next ten year period.
Under the most intense scenarios of US military activity, a further $US705 billion could be added to the cost by interest payments, assuming the wars continue to be largely financed by government borrowing, the report said.
The calculations were based on estimated costs up to 2007 for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and other war on terror spending.
They also included related spending on medical care and disability compensation for veterans, and survivors benefits and aid for building up foreign armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The CBO projected the total cost over the next 10 years under two scenarios, one with a sharp drawdown of US troops abroad, the other under a more gradual drawdown.
The first scenario envisaged 30,000 troops being deployed abroad in the "war on terror" would decline to 30,000 by the beginning of the fiscal year 2010.
Under the second more intense model, US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq would be drawn down to 75,000 by fiscal year 2013.
-AFP