There was a lot of coverage about war costs this morning on the news. The defense department thinks that keeping the additional 20,000 troops on the front line for another three months is going to cost an additional 700 million.
So lets say we need between two times and four times the number of troops, in total, to secure and stabilize Iraq. How much would that cost? Taking the original 700 number, doubling it (conservative) to get troops to the theatre, multiplying it by four to get to a year, and then multiplying that by between 6 to 18 to double to quadruple the force load, and you get... The price of the war will require an additional 33 to 100 billion, on troops alone, to secure Iraq, for the next year. So let's say it's 50 billion per year for troops, I would say that number is probably double to quadruple that in reality.
What people don't realize is that, while our military is the best in the world, it's also the most expensive. Every times an insurgent with a $300 RPG files a $30 shell at one of our Humvees we probably incur about $500K in damages, transportation for the injured, medical care, reporting and long term benefits.
This is going to be an expensive war at a level which we have never seen.
Posted by jherr at April 22, 2004 07:47 AMThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
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