In 2003, before the war in Iraq began, the Bush Administration estimated a total cost for the conflict of $50 billion to $60 billion. Now, the time elapsed since the beginning of our involvement will soon top the amount of time from Pearl Harbor to V-D Day and the military says it needs more money to get the job done.
For the 2007 fiscal year, which began last month, reports say the Bush administration is planning to request the largest amount of annual funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan yet, making the multilateral conflict the second most expensive military effort in American history, behind World War II.
The Pentagon is currently reviewing their request, that officials say will fall between $127 and $160 billion dollars for 2007. This will bring the cost for the conflicts to not $60 billion, but $600 billion – and according to both military and media reports – the war is far from over. Adjusted for inflation, the cost of the Vietnam war totaled $536 billion.
Spending $127 to $160 billion dollars for one fiscal year is an astronomical sum of money for the American people. Bringing this conflict to an end, however, is also of astronomical importance to the economic future of this nation. If we don’t adequately fund the military now, we run the risk of hindering its ability to complete a mission plagued with increasing risk, complexity and declining human power. The increased funding for this year will be spent mostly on infrastructure expenses for the Army and the Air Force to repair and replace equipment and redeploy troops.
After a close review of the entirety of their request, Congress should proceed to fund the military for the amount it asks. We’re in no position to be cutting corners during this conflict.
However, we make this recommendation with one major stipulation: If this request is fulfilled, it should be accompanied by the reinstatement of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (OSIGIR). Because public dollars are being spent on reconstruction projects headed by large corporations, there should be specific discretion applied to these types of allocations, which can be effectively accomplished by the OSIGIR. In the past, these dealings have been plagued with corruption. If we’re going to spend that much money, we have to make sure we’re doing it efficiently and effectively.
Both the American people and Congress should support the military both morally and monetarily as it moves towards designing closure to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. To cut them short of needed resources at this point would only be contrary to the popular interests Americans recently voiced in the midterm congressional elections.