War's 'hidden cost' called heavy

[Crackingham]

A forthcoming request for additional funds to continue waging war in Iraq will not begin to address the "hidden cost" of the conflict, according to Pentagon officials and other government authorities who say that tens of billions of dollars more will eventually be needed to repair or replace heavily used equipment and to compensate for the wear and tear on members of the armed services.

The Pentagon next month plans to ask Congress for up to $100 billion in supplemental funds to pay for the ongoing combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the total budgeted so far to well over $200 billion. But military officers say the administration's estimates do not include the investment that will be necessary to fix what they say they fear is becoming a broken ground force.

"We're going to be paying for this war for years to come," Representative Martin T. Meehan, a Lowell Democrat and member of the House Armed Services Committee, said by telephone yesterday from the Middle East, where he has been touring US military bases in Iraq. "We are not preparing for much of the cost."

If the war were to end today, according to a preliminary estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that was described by officials who have been briefed on it, the Army would still need at least $20 billion more than budgeted over the next three years just to be at the same level of preparedness as before the war.


http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/01/14/wars_hidden_cost_called_heavy/

[Wright Patman]

1. This calls for another round of tax cuts

eom

[wishlist]

2. Meanwhile Bush is concentrating on fixing the Social Security 'crisis'

We will see Bush and his Congress try to come up with the money for his fiasco in Iraq by cutting spending on 'social programs' that provide retirement and health care (and VA assistance) that benefit middle and lower income Americans.

[Dhalgren]

3. You hit the nail on the head!

The SS "crisis" solution is a smoke screen for ending SS forever. The people of this broken, staggering, failed nation can not let these plunderers ruin and steal all that is left. We will be greatly hated by our descendants...

[Massachusetts]

4. Bingo!

[BOSSHOG]

5. And all the god fearing conservatives

in red states who blindly supported bush will be amongst those hurt worse when social programs start to suffer. The same folks who spent years howling about tax and spend liberals when they raised their little heads up from the trough. The same folks, who, by god, support our troops and hate homosexuals in the name of Jesus Christ. The same folks who maintain marriage by maintaining high rates of divorce, incest, spousal abuse and teen pregnancy. The same folks who don't know a damn thing about stock market investing but who blindly follow the orders from the pulpit and from the radio. The bush base in a nutshell.

[RaulGroom]

6. Throughout the presidential campaign...

I saw no one on television ever mention, in discussing Kerry's estimates of the war's cost, that all the appropriations for the war did not cover the amount that was being spent out of the normal Pentagon outlays, which would eventually have to be paid up.

Including all of those costs, Kerry's price tag for the war of $200 billion was actually much lower than the real cost.

We are a nation of blithering idiots.