The number crunchers and bean counters in Washington expect the cost of the Iraq War will rise by 25% in 2005. Quite a bit since the Bush administration predicted two years ago that the troops would all be home by now. What's more, those rising costs of the war will likely start cutting into the regular Defense budget in a big way in the very near future. Chief among the reasons for the rising costs: rising troop levels. There are more troops on the ground now than at any time in the war.
Then there's the cost of defending all those extra troops. Another 35,000 vehicles need armor at a cost of $4 billion.
The cost of the war at the end of 2004 came to $128 billion. By the end of this year, it should reach as much as $232 billion. By the end of 2007, $316 billion.
But that doesn't include major maintainence and replacing destroyed equipment. A single Bradley Fighting Vehicle will run taxpayers $3.16 million. (Christian Science Monitor via USA Today)
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