Iraq War Costs Approach $567 Billion, Congressional Report Says

[Barrett808]

Source: Bloomberg

Iraq War Costs Approach $567 Billion, Congressional Report Says
Tony Capaccio
Thu Jul 19, 12:00 AM ET

July 19 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of the war in Iraq will exceed the half-trillion dollar mark once Congress completes its work on a defense measure for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, the Congressional Research Service said in a report.

The defense budget for fiscal 2008 that's in various stages of congressional deliberation requests $141.7 billion to fight terrorism including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

``If Congress approves these requests, total funding would reach about $567 billion for Iraq, $157 billion for Afghanistan'' with the remainder for enhanced U.S. homeland security, CRS analyst Amy Belasco said in a July 16 report released yesterday.

Spending for the effort against terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is on a course to reach $758 billion after the House and Senate complete work on their respective bills and negotiators agree on a final version later this year, the report said.

Belasco's report criticizes the Pentagon's bookkeeping, saying that for effective oversight, ``Congress needs considerably better information'' than has been provided.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20070719/pl_bloomberg/ao53cfkdjhri

[TomInTib]

1. And that is not even factoring the cost of two carrier groups in the Gulf.

Or the taxpayer-subsidized private contractors in the ME.

[beyurslf]

2. I am sure it is a trillion once we do that. Anyone know where to find those figures?

[TomInTib]

4. Maybe you could check the man-sized safe in Cheney's office.

I could write you a note.

And I am sure they would welcome you with open arms (and a hood and a set of shackles).

[matt819]

3. Laid end to end. . .

Laid end to end, 567 billion dollars (in singles) would circle the earth at the equator roughly 2,206 times, or could be looped in 115 round trips to the moon. Again, using singles, stacked the bills would reach 38,480 miles, or roughly 16% of the distance between the earth and the moon.

[TomInTib]

6. I remember Dick Gregory talking about the costs to get to the moon.

"For that price, you coulda stacked dollar bills and walked to the motherfucker".

[Bitwit1234]

5. I cry everytime I think about all the money wasted.

And nothing has been accomplished in Iraq except the infrastructer has been ruined. Innocent Iraqi by the hundreds of thousands have been killed, more terrorist have been created, and worst of all our own military have been killed and maimed. bush should be splattered with rotten eggs and tomatos on TV so every one can see. And jailed for life.

[WindRavenX]

7. Wow. 567 billion could buy an awful lot of college scholarships, universal health care...

...several times over.

But no--we had to spend everything on killing other people. Awesome. :puke:

[Supersedeas]

9. not to mention -- bolstering Social Security

[pa28]

8. We've now exceeded the cost of Vietnam

Washington Post: the price of the Vietnam war adjusted to 2006 dollars was $549 billion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/26/AR2006042601601.html

Sadly, this war is far from over in blood and treasure. The instability it created and the effort to repair the damage may never be calculated in terms of cost.