New Iraq Army to Cost $2 Billion to Build (2 Billion/40,000 troops?)

[Khephra]

September 18, 2003, 10:31 AM EDT


WASHINGTON -- At an estimated cost next year of $2 billion, the United States plans to build, virtually from scratch, a new Iraqi army of 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers.

In presenting a detailed outline of the plan, the senior adviser to the U.S. occupation authority in Iraq said Wednesday that everything from guns and uniforms to trucks and toilets must be bought for an Iraqi army that will comprise mainly infantry, with little armor or artillery.

"The old army, which we formally dissolved as an institution, no longer existed when we did it, but Iraq will need an army in the future, and it is important to begin the process of building that now," said Walter Slocombe, adviser on national security matters to Iraq civil administrator L. Paul Bremer.

The first group of about 800 Iraqi soldiers is due to finish its training next month. Slocombe said at a Pentagon news conference that the goal is to have the 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers trained and operating within a year. That, he said, is half the time U.S. authorities initially believed raising an army of that size would take.

more..............

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-iraq-new-army,0,2489672.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

[NNN0LHI]

1. Maybe they all want gold plated AK-47's? Hey. The sky is the limit

As Junior likes to say, "its your money".

Don

[htuttle]

2. They better have frickin' laser beams mounted on their heads...

...for that price.

[expatriot]

3. That is actually pretty cheap, guys....

Think about it, that's only $50,000 per soldier.

If you include....

the cost of training them
the cost of outfitting them
the cost of keeping them in supply and
the real expensive part is 'support services'
for every soldier, there are couple people behind a desk or in a hospital, or somewhere... involved in some sort of service support, like logistics, etc.
then their salary.

That is just the cost of infantry! just think of motorized divisions, armored, and air units! 2 Billion for 40,000 troops is on the cheap!

[legin]

4. Agreed

the report that Senator Byrd got recently details how much it costs to make two new u.s. divisions, approx 30,000 troops, the cost was 18-19 bn. (costs lower if don't use new equipment)

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdoc.cfm?index=4515&type=1

Any cost coming out of Iraq for reconstruction I say multiply by a number between 2 and 5, I'll go 6 bn for the actual cost of the 40,000 army.

[NNN0LHI]

6. I don't think Iraqi soldiers expect the kind of salary US soldiers recieve

Or their support services either for that matter. The average salary for a soldier in Iraq would be minimal. I was thinking about this the other day. After the Halliburton employee who was delivering mail was killed, I wondering why are we paying an American Halliburton employee $150,000 dollars a year to deliver mail? Then Halliburton gets another $150,000 for their cut. And we still need to supply a platoon of soldiers to protect the Halliburton mail man on top of that. Maybe in the US $50,000 per soldier would be cheap per soldier, but not in Iraq. Probably 3 thousand dollars a year would let that guy live like a millionaire in Iraq. Whats the cost of living in Iraq? As for an air force please don't tell me we are going to begin supplying F-16's to the Iraqis. Holy Jesus. Get them some used MIG's from Russia or something. Come on now. Think about it.

Don

[legin]

9. you're probably right NNN0LHI

I still think 2bn is under what it is going to cost though.

Although I should imagine there is a hell of a lot of equipment floating around the u.s. military complex which can be charged at a very nominal rate.

[htuttle]

10. I would bet that the $2 billion doesn't include pay for the Iraqi troops

That is an ongoing expense, and it would be silly to include it in a 'one time' appropriations request. Their salaries will have to come from somewhere else. (I'm thinking of the difference between Capital and Operating expenses, as they would be known in the private sector).

I think that the $2 billion is 'setup money', to pay for things like new barracks, headquarters, uniforms, vehicles, communications and office equipment, etc...

Oh, I'd also bet I know who is going to be getting the contract for that setup funding.

Kellogg, Brown and Root, a division of Halliburton, of course.

Let's watch, and see.

[Barrett808]

8. You get what you pay for...

How many of these guys will be moles for the resistance?

[RamboLiberal]

5. Hey, how about some toilets for our guys

And barracks, and hot meals, etc. I hear our guys are still having burn the contents of the shit barrels ala that scene in Platoon.

[NickB79]

7. Yeah, and I'm sure none of these soldiers will be from the old regime

Right, sure. We went in, bombed the hell out of them, and now we're rebuilding and resupplying the very people we just tried to kill. The very people we accused of acts of terror and suffering against the Iraqi population. Hell, let's just re-instate Saddam while we're at it.

[legin]

11. thought i recognised the name

"The training of the Iraqi infantry is being done by employees of the Vinnell Corp., a Fairfax, Va.-based subsidiary of defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp."

The same Vinnell Corp. who were the target of the bomb in Saudi Arabia in May.


"WASHINGTON — Of the seven military and police forces in Saudi Arabia, perhaps none is more important than the National Guard. It has one overarching assignment: protecting the royal, ruling House of Saud.

Of the hundreds of U.S. firms operating in Saudi Arabia, perhaps none is more important to the royal family than the Vinnell Corp. The Fairfax, Va., unit of Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp. trains the National Guard.

That Vinnell, active in the desert kingdom for more than a quarter-century, was among the entities targeted in the three coordinated explosions in Riyadh on Monday night surprised few Americans with detailed knowledge of U.S. companies' operations there."

(more...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-iraq-new-army,0,2489672.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines