Defense Secretary Robert M. Gate’s $42-billion request will bring the 2008 war funding total to $190 billion. According to The Washington Post, this would be the largest single-year spending total for the wars so far. Add this to Wednesday’s Senate vote to split Iraq along religious and sectarian lines (as though it is senators’ decision to make) and the grim picture of Iraq’s future starts to look even worse.

Washington Post

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates asked Congress yesterday [Wednesday] to approve an additional $42.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the Bush administration’s 2008 war funding request to nearly $190 billion — the largest single-year total for the wars so far.

The move came as Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff and former top U.S. commander in Iraq, warned lawmakers that the Army is stretched dangerously thin because of current war operations and would probably have trouble responding to a major conflict elsewhere. “The current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply,” Casey said yesterday. “We are consumed with meeting the demands of the current fight and are unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as necessary for other potential contingencies.”

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Also: Robert Scheer’s column on the bipartisan Iraq spending debacle.