The Bush administration will request Congress for another $120 billion to cover war costs in Iraq and Afghanistan and an additional $18 million for hurricane relief operations this year.
If $120 billion is sanctioned, the total cost of fighting these wars will go up to $440 billion.
Most of the money would go towards Iraq war where monthly expenses are about $4.5 billion. In Afghanistan, it is costing the US administration around $800 million a month.
Particulars have not been finalized yet, but the 2007 budget proposal that President Bush submits next week will detail them. Meanwhile, the president will also ask Congress to grant $2.3 billion to fight the avian flu epidemic, according to congressional aides.
$70 billion will be earmarked for Iraq and Afghanistan operations this year, while the remaining $50 billion would be kept aside for the first few months of the fiscal year beginning October 1.
According to administration officials, these figures were only estimates and the final amount could be slightly changed before it is officially submitted to Congress.
Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a group that advocates balanced federal budgets, said: “War is an expensive proposition. Whether you're for the war or against the war, that's a fact.”
According to Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, the requests show the president's urge to “commit the resources that are necessary to fight and win the war on terrorism.”
Besides countering insurgency, the money would cover the salaries of the troops, repair and replacement of equipment and training Iraqi and Afghan security forces among others.
Six months before invading Iraq in March 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had stated: “You don't know if it's going to last two days or two weeks or two months. It's certainly not going to last two years, but it's going to cost money.”
Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz's research paper published recently estimates that the Iraq war would eventually cost $2 trillion factoring in all expenses.
