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Report: Bush masked cost of wars that could top $1.7 trillion
Nick Juliano
Raw Story
Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008
Even if Barack Obama draws down troops in Iraq like he’s promised, a new report finds the US is on pace to have spent nearly $2 trillion on military operations including Iraq and Afghanistan over the next decade.
The nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments found that the $687 billion spent so far on Iraq has cost the US more than every conflict aside from World War II. With the $184 billion in Afghanistan, the two main conflicts of the war on terror have proved to be 50 percent more expensive than Vietnam.
An author of the report said President Bush’s decision to circumvent the traditional budget process is to blame for the exceedingly high costs.
The reliance on supplemental funding creates a misleading picture of overall requirements, said Steven Kosiak, vice president of budget studies at CSBA and author of the report, during a briefing on Monday. “A sound budgeting process forces policymakers to recognize the true costs of their policy choices,” he said.
The CSBA’s assessment comes in below some of the highest estimates for the wars’ costs. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard economist Laura Bilmes estimated Iraq alone would cost $3 trillion when factoring costs beyond the battlefield, such as veterans health benefits and disability pay.
Reuters detailed the CSBA report on Tuesday.
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The latest report blamed President Bush for keeping the costs so high through his practice of funding the wars via “emergency” supplemental budget requests, which fall outside the bounds of the normal budgetary process. Such requests, CSBA found, virtually eliminate Congressional oversight and hurt the Pentagon’s ability to plan for the long term.
That Bush insisted on delivering massive tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans during wartime also drove up the long-term price tag, according to the report.
Wartime costs are expected to balloon by an additional $416 billion to $817 billion by 2018, according to the report, even if troop deployments fall below 75,000. Currently, 143,000 US troops are deployed to Iraq and another 31,000 are in Afghanistan.
President-elect Obama has promised to begin withdrawing combat troops from Iraq, but he plans to increase deployments to Afghanistan. An agreement with the Iraqi government signed recently would see all US troops gone from that country by 2011.
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11 Responses to “Report: Bush masked cost of wars that could top $1.7 trillion”
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December 16th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Throw Bush and his cronies in prison now! Forever!
December 16th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
But just like every other buisness, they’ll just pass it on to the consumer. Don’t forget we are just tax paying units. Cogs on a wheel in their machine. Pawns in a game of power and sex. Dupes in a troubled and failing society. Bumps on a log they scratch their asses on. Flies in a soup they gobble up all to quickly. Blind leading the blind in a burning building. Need I go on. When you go to your town meetings stand up and demand answers. If we all stand up and shout the world will hear. If they start killing us with guns and clubs, still stand your ground, maybe then We The People will notice.
Hey #1 you’re a nut.
December 16th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
You are being taken from a ride. Your hard-earned money is being stolen from you and most American’s don’t even comprehend how it is happening. Worst of all, our children and grandchildren are facing terrible times if we let this continue.
All we need to do to unseat our rulers is stop using their money. When we switch to an alternative currency their system will fall. The central banks will dissolve and their political actors will be out of a job.
Click the link below to explore a new inflation-proof currency, new economic format and new social structure that leaves the criminal bankers and corrupt politicians out of the picture altogether.
Don’t fight the system:
Replace it
http://socialviability.com/
December 16th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
The only upside to tragedy is what and whether we learn.
We, some of us more than others, fell for this shit for decades, when, to paraphrase Shannon, a unified refusal would have won the day.
The only hope is that it’s BAD ENOUGH to get the American people, especially those who voted for Bush twice, or even once, to swear off partaking of the kool-ade.
What we need is a twelve-step program for suckers.
By the way, that also goes for those who went along with NAFTA, GATT, and the Telecoms giveaway under Clinton, not to mention all the decades of wool-gathering that blinded us to OKC, Iran-Contra, Tonkin, COINTELPRO, you get the picture.
It’s the PEOPLE who need to repent. Bush is a reprobate — incorrigible.
December 16th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
That’s not the only thing Bush “masked”. He also masked the fact that he’s a flaming fudge packer and that he’s had male escorts visit him in the White House.
Ever wonder why he walks kinda funny?
December 16th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Guess you just have to figuire the hammer is going to fall sometime.
Its all money just printed, backed by nothing… Fiat Money designed to crash the system when they decide they have leeched all they can from the America People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7KliFJQaM4
December 16th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
You folks want to know what makes me (VERY) (ANGRY)?
That my wife & I are horrifyed by what the NWO has done to OUR country and how my FATHER gave his LIFE in defence of this land !!
“WELL NEW WORLD ORDER YOU HAVE A FEW PROBLEMS NOW DON’T YOU”
So alot of us on this sight will be standing up to you and you folk’s on here remember the one’s that will soon be paying for your freedom with thier (LIVES)!!
So all I can say is this ,UNITED,FREE & SOVERIGN BY MY OATH!
Our children are counting on us.
And on a last note I allso would like the GOV SPYS on here to Take the time to look at this Power point prestation Before you Betray this land again– http://www.ae911truth.org/flashmov11.htm
December 17th, 2008 at 2:34 am
what do you mean!! BUSH is a good bloke! with strong moral and ethical fibre!!!NOT HEHEHE! FUNK BUSH!!! HIM AND HIS POSSE ARE LAME!! WITHOUT THE PROTECTION OF THE ACROSS the BOARD SECURITY APPARATUS!!,cia,secret service ,fbi,police,,,etc! he would be dead real quick!! these people have to live in a bubble!!of lies!! god help them if the system falls to the people!! they wont even make it to court or have a fair trial!!! they will be murdered by the public and their own people in low level gov,in the worst possible fashion and uploaded to utube becuase people are gonna be so appalled by these peoples actions it would be natural instinct to be very violent and not be able to control yourself!! THATS ALL A WET DREAM OF MINE!!! AHAHAHAH !!BUT THEN THE BIG QUESTION!! WHO FALLS IN THERE PLACE IF THAT DID HAPPEN??? ITS ALL TOO MUCH!! THE TRUTH MAKES ME SICK!!!
December 17th, 2008 at 2:37 am
ONE TALIBANI SAYS TO ANOTHER AFTER SEEING 911!! WAS THAT US OR US!!!HAHAHH!!LAME!!SO LAME!! no time for humour!!heheheheh
December 17th, 2008 at 3:47 am
Remember kids, caps lock is cruise control for cool, but even with cruise control you have to steer. Is it really that hard to write your posts out with some level of intelligence?
December 17th, 2008 at 5:41 am
Thanks for the link to a good, flick, LineInTheSand.