2008 to be the most expensive year of the Iraq War

The White House will ask Congress next week to approve another massive spending measure for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan totaling nearly 200 billion dollars, The Los Angeles Times reported on its website. Citing unnamed Pentagon officials, the newspaper said if President George W. Bush's spending request is approved, 2008 will be the most expensive year of the Iraq war.

Spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would then be about 195 billion in fiscal 2008, an increase of around 12 percent from the 173 billion dollars spent this year.

In 2004, the two conflicts together cost 94 billion dollars; in 2005, they cost 108 billion; in 2006, 122 billion, the paper said.

When costs of CIA operations and embassy expenses are added, the war in Iraq currently costs taxpayers about 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. "It all depends on what happens in Iraq, but thus far it has continued to get bloodier and more expensive."

[AFP]