U.S. war costs may top 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars

www.chinaview.cn 2007-10-24 22:45:23 Print

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) --

The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could total 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars through the next decade, or 8,000 dollars per citizen, a congressional report said Wednesday.

A previous estimate of 1.6 trillion dollars was upgraded to factor in interest, as both wars are being fought with borrowed money, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said in the report.

Of the 2.4 trillion dollars, 1.9 trillion will be used in Iraq, it said.

To date, the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have reached 604 billion dollars, according to the report.

Adjusted for inflation, that is higher than the cost of the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Prior to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration estimated the Iraq war would cost no more than 50 billion dollars.

The new estimate also includes President George W. Bush's request Monday for another 46 billion dollars in war funding.

Sean Kevelighan, a spokesman for the White House budget office, said, "Congress should stop playing politics with our troops by trying to artificially inflate war funding levels."

However, he declined to provide a White House estimate.

The CBO estimates assume that 75,000 troops will remain in Iraq and Afghanistan through 2017, including roughly 50,000 in Iraq.

While the burden of the war costs on the nation's overall economy is currently fairly small, the longer term effects of redirected investment and restricted borders could hurt the competitiveness of the U.S..

Economists said one result of the war is most likely higher interest rates, as government borrowing means more bonds on the market, keeping bond prices low and yields high.

An estimate by the Center for Economic and Policy Research said10 years of war spending would cost the U.S. 500,000 jobs and crimp economic output by 60 billion dollars a year.

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