Military Spending Boggles the Mind

The Pentagon estimates that the cost of the Iraq war will reach $8.4 billion a month this year, or $9.7 billion if you include Afghanistan.

That’s up from $8 billion a month last year, and $4.4 billion back in 2003.

Either America was getting twice as much war for half the price four years ago, or someone is inflating his budget.

Gordon R. England says the Pentagon has to spend more to replace and repair expensive vehicles, and that may be. But in a secret memo the deputy secretary of defense also encouraged the Pentagon to boost its estimates for war costs.

Reuters via LA Times:

The Pentagon has been estimating last year’s costs for the increasingly unpopular war at about $8 billion a month. It rose from a monthly “burn rate” of about $4.4 billion during the first year of fighting in fiscal 2003.

During testimony at a House Budget Committee hearing, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England said that nearly four years into the war, costs were rising because big-ticket items such as helicopters, airplanes and armored vehicles that are wearing out or were lost in combat had to be replaced.

When U.S. combat costs in Afghanistan are factored in, the Pentagon will spend about $9.7 billion a month during the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, Pentagon spokesmen said.

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