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Bush administration asks US$200b for Iraq, Afghan wars

The White House will ask Congress next week to approve another massive spending measure for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan totaling nearly US$200 billion, the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site late on Saturday.

Citing unnamed Pentagon officials, the newspaper said if US President George W. Bush's spending request is approved, next year will be the most expensive year of the Iraq War.

GROWING COSTS

US war costs have continued to grow because of the additional combat forces sent to Iraq this year and because of efforts to quickly ramp up production of new equipment, such as mine-resistant trucks, the report said.

The new trucks can cost three to six times as much as an armored Humvee, the paper said.

The Bush administration said earlier this year it would probably need US$147.5 billion for the next fiscal year, but Pentagon officials now say that -- and US$47 billion more will be required, the Times said.

That would put spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at about US$195 billion for the next fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1.

This represents an increase of approximately 12 percent from the US$173 billion spent this year.

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and other officials are to formally present the full request at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, the report said.

PRICE TAG

When costs of CIA operations and embassy expenses are added, the war in Iraq currently costs taxpayers about US$12 billion dollars a month, said Winslow Wheeler, a former Republican congressional budget aide who is a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information in Washington.

"Everybody predicts declines, but they haven't occurred, and 2008 will be higher than 2007," the paper quoted Wheeler as saying.

"It all depends on what happens in Iraq, but thus far it has continued to get bloodier and more expensive," he said.

RISING

In 2004, the two conflicts together cost US$94 billion; in 2005, they cost US$108 billion; last year, US$122 billion, the paper said.

The new spending request is likely to push the cumulative cost of the war in Iraq alone through next year past the US$600 billion mark.

The bill is more than the Korean War and nearly as much as the Vietnam War, based on estimates by government budget officials, the Times said.
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