Congress expects up to $1(00)B wartime request

AP ^ | Dec 13 2005 | LIZ SIDOTI

[jmc1969]

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is in the early stages of drafting a wartime request for up to $100 billion more for Iraq and Afghanistan, lawmakers say, a figure that would push spending related to the wars toward a staggering half-trillion dollars.

That would be in addition to $50 billion Congress is about to give the Pentagon before lawmakers adjourn for the year for operations in Iraq for the beginning of 2006. Military commanders expect that pot to last through May.

"They were very ambitious," said Loren Thompson, a military analyst with the Lexington Institute, a Washington-based think tank, who has close ties to the Pentagon.

Thompson said $100 billion would not be surprising, given that bills containing war spending often escape close scrutiny and have turned into Christmas trees for the Pentagon's pet projects.

"The military hangs every wish, and every lost cause, onto the tree in hopes of getting it approved," Thompson said.

Steven Kosiak, an analyst at the private Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, called the figures cited by lawmakers extraordinary but not inconceivable.

"The number is so high," he said, "that it suggests that there's a significant amount of money in there for costs not directly related to the cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan."

[in hoc signo vinces]

Half a trillion over four years of war? Sounds like a bargain when put in context...by why would the lame stream media put anything in context.

[Meadow Muffin]

Hey, I say make it $200 Billion, nothing but the best for our side..they deserve it.

[xcamel]

You do realize the reporters name is an anagram... Liz Idiots

[AZRepublican]

Uh, someone tell me again what the benefits to the taxpayer is supposed be with all this spending? Or is this like immigration where we get a smile while getting the shaft?

[Iscool]

Our Gov't must be rich...

[Cicero]

It is a little bit strange that the UN, France, and Russia managed to milk Iraq for tens of billions of dollars and no one in the MSM complained, but when we offer to fix Iraq for free, then they complain that we are mistreating the Iraqi people and the US taxpayers and are warmongering imperialists.

If it weren't for that awkward word "colonialism," I would say that it would only be fair to use some of that Iraqi oil money to pay for the defense and rebuilding of Iraq. In fact, I kind of wonder where all that Iraqi oil is going? Except when terrorists blow up some of the oil facilities, we don't seem to hear anything about it.