Dear Everyone,
Enough is enough is enough.
If these Congressional Research Service figures are even close to correct we need to get the US military shut down and out of Afghanistan and Iraq - immediately. That means today - right now - leaving nothing behind but boot prints and tire tracks.
Screw Iran and its multi-religious Sunni - Shiite - Kurd civil war - screw Afghanistan and its poppy crops and tribal warfare.
Just get out now and cut off those frigging Congressional fingers digging deeper and deeper into the next several generations wallets.
Ron Getty
SF Libertarian
WASHINGTON:
The United States has shelled out well over half a trillion dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and running costs have hit $12 billion a month, according to an independent report.
New figures by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) emerged as debate hit a critical point in Washington over the huge human and financial costs of the four-year conflict in Iraq.
The report also provided a glimpse into the astronomical costs of US military operations in years to come - saying the global war on terror could have churned through a stunning $1.4 trillion by 2017.
Since the strike on Afghanistan launched after the September 11 attacks in 2001, the United States has spent $610 billion on the two wars, and on protecting US bases worldwide, said the report, updated late last month.
Iraq has accounted so far for $450 billion, the report said. In fiscal year 2007 alone, the Iraq operation sucked up $165.8, an increase of 40 per cent year-on-year.
CRS, which exists to provide non-partisan and independent advice to lawmakers and congressional committees, said the huge financial cost of the war was set to rise.
If 2008 funding requests are granted in full, the report said, war spending will rise to $758 billion, with $567 billion spent on Iraq.
"For the first half of FY2007, CRS estimates that DOD's average monthly obligations for contracts and pay is running about $12 billion per month, well above the $8.7 billion in FY2006," the report said, referring to the Defense Department (DOD).